The New Yorker: Egypt’s Farcical Election

US President Donald Trump has broken with American diplomatic tradition by welcoming with open arms the current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a former general with a spotty human rights record. El-Sisi captured 97 percent of the vote in this year’s election, where only one opponent remained in the race long enough for voters to see his name on the ballot. That lone opponent, Mousa Moustafa Mousa, belonged to a party that had previously supported El-Sisi. Six other rivals dropped out of the race, some prosecuted and some jailed. Rather than condemn the farce of the presidential election, Trump administration officials congratulated El-Sisi and the country’s demonstration of “enthusiasm and patriotism.” Trump’s enabling attitude and decisions like appointing John Bolton as the national security adviser have disheartened those in the region who had looked to America as the moral enforcer for a corrupted regime. – YaleGlobal