Trump as president would pose global danger, says human rights chief

The world will be in danger if Donald Trump becomes president of the U.S., the United Nations top human rights official said on Wednesday. The republican nominee’s views on ethnic minorities and his talk of authorising torture in interrogations was “deeply unsettling and disturbing”, said Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein. “If Donald Trump is elected on the basis of what he has said already - and unless that changes - I think it is without any doubt that he would be dangerous from an international point of view,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights told a news briefing in Geneva.

I always believe that it’s incumbent on leaders to lead and to lead in a way that is ethical and moral. The use of half-truths is a very clever political device. Because as every propagandist knows, you allow the listener to fill in the rest.

Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein

Mr Trump has said he would immediately re-authorise the waterboarding of suspected militants if elected, contending that “torture works”. Mr Hussein, a Jordanian prince, said he would rather not interfere in political campaigns but when a candidate’s comments pointed to a potential use of torture he had to speak out. He said: “We have to be on guard to see that in the end vulnerable populations, populations at risk do not again see their rights deprived because of a view that is in the ascendancy based on false premises.”

I like it a lot. I don’t think it’s tough enough

Donald Trump, speaking about waterboarding in June

Politics