Rex Tillerson: Show Up for Human Rights

In another year or another administration, the absence of a cabinet official at a press conference would merit no comment. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision not to attend Friday’s release of the department’s annual human rights report, however, is a small but telling sign of a more profound and dangerous shift: President Donald Trump’s apathy for the values that have long fortified U.S. power and influence.

“My job is not to represent the world,” Trump said in his address to Congress last month. “My job is to represent the United States of America.” While it’s hard to argue with this statement literally, it’s also hard to take it seriously. Representing the U.S. means standing up for its principles as well as its interests, and the two are less divisible than Trump seems to think. However flawed in practice, America’s avowed commitment to democracy and human rights -- two concepts that were absent from his speech -- has always been a wellspring of its strength, which has grown when both have spread.