Dazzled by a Red Carpet, Trump Gives Philippine Strongman a Pass on His Killing Spree

In Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines, the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug users and dealers — gunned down by police officers or death squads, with bystanders as young as 4 years old caught in the crossfire — has become a part of daily life, with the death toll running into the thousands in the 16 months since he was sworn in as president.

Duterte’s appalling human rights record, however, is apparently not a subject of much concern to Donald Trump, the American president who met with the Philippine leader in Manila on Monday, on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.