Look, Trump and his people just got Democrats to start supporting a hardcore Venezuelan gang running drugs into the U.S. on boats. Now he’ll have them supporting nations which wrongfully hold Americans
Trump signs executive order creating ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’ designation
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order creating a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” designation meant to penalize countries that wrongfully imprison Americans.
The new designation is meant to deter countries from illegally detaining US citizens and encourage them to release wrongful detainees that they have in custody. It will be up to the secretary of state to determine which countries will be given the designation.
“Through this Executive Order, actors designated as State Sponsors of Wrongful Detention may face severe penalties including economic sanctions, visa restrictions, foreign assistance restrictions, and travel restrictions for U.S. passport holders,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement Friday.
“The bottom line: Anyone who uses an American as a bargaining chip will pay the price,” he said.
The administration did not announce what countries might be designated as state sponsors of wrongful detention. Nations like Venezuela, Russia, Iran, China and Afghanistan all have a history of wrongfully detaining Americans.
America first!
This senior administration official said the executive order allows the administration access to the “toolbox” of punitive measures that are used against countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
“It’s a widening of the aperture against whom we can use those tools. You don’t have to be funding Hamas, Hezbollah or al-Qaeda, you can simply be trying to exploit our citizens wrongfully,” the official said.
Good. Do not mess with Americans.
