The top two people at Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg, have come out swinging against Donald Trump. The two business leaders are not happy after President Trump’s first week in office.
So what has gotten Sheryl Sandberg so angry? Specifically, it is President Donald Trump’s policies on abortion.
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President Trump has moved to block American funds for any organization in the world which advises that abortion is an alternative for pregnant women who live in poverty. Donald Trump basically restored an old gag rule which blocked American aid workers around the world from even talking about abortion.
The interesting thing here is that abortion was never even discussed as an issue during the 2016 Presidential campaign. Donald Trump never really talked about it himself, and yet he visibly took action on the issue in his first week in office.
So what happened? Well if you were paying attention, then candidate Donald Trump won the endorsement of America’s religious right. How did a twice divorced, philandering casino owner who had no history of giving a damn about America’s so called family values win over the Christian fundamentalists? Well no one proved anything at the time about backroom deals, but now we can be certain that they were made.
As for Sheryl Sandberg, she wrote on her Facebook page, “Comprehensive family planning helps prevent unintended pregnancies, deaths and abortions. This week’s executive order reinstating the global gag rule will make that work much harder. It bans health organizations around the world from providing counseling on all family planning options. If they refuse to abide by the ban, they could lose millions in funding from the United States. And this ban is harsher and broader than past orders by past presidents, because it covers every program that falls under global health assistance. That means it’ll hurt more people.”
“We don’t have to guess — we know what this will do. The last time the global gag rule was in effect, research showed more women who lost access to contraception had unwanted pregnancies and abortion rates doubled. The best way to prevent abortion is through more family planning services, not fewer.”
While Sheryl Sandberg did not mention Donald Trump by name, she posted a link to a New York Times article on what the Trump Administration had done.
And what about the richest Jew in the world, Mark Zuckerberg? Well the founder and owner of Facebook has also used his personal Facebook page to slam President Donald Trump. The issue that bother’s Mark Zuckerberg is President Trump’s position on immigration and his ban on allowing Syrian refugees into the United States.
The post opened with an explanation of his own family’s history. “My great grandparents came from Germany, Austria and Poland. Priscilla’s parents were refugees from China and Vietnam. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that. Like many of you, I’m concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump,” wrote Zuckerberg.
“We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. Expanding the focus of law enforcement beyond people who are real threats would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don’t pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.”
Mark Zuckerberg went on to call for President Donald Trump to ensure that those Syrian refugees who are no threat to America’s security and who really are in danger do get a place of refuge in America.
This sentiment has been echoed by many Jews who remember how so many died in the Holocaust who might had been saved had Western nations like America not closed their doors to them. At the time, concerns over the economy which still suffered from the Great Depression and a feigned disbelief that the Germans were really murdering all of the Jews were cited as the reasons. But we all know that it was really because they were Jews. If one million white Protestant Christians were in danger from a non-white government then America’s doors would surely have been swung open.
Even the Anne Frank Foundation has called out President Donald Trump on this issue.
So if Donald Trump is reading this, or if you have his ear, let us impart to him a very important warning. He can offend minorities, he can lose the women’s vote and the urban centers of America, he can win the Presidency after losing the popular vote, and he can even piss of the Jews, but President Donald Trump cannot and must not get Facebook angry at him. If Hillary Clinton supporters blamed fake news on social media for her defeat, just wait and see what could happen to Donald Trump’s Presidency when Mark Zuckerberg decides to use the world’s largest social media platform against him.
