ben cardin
Lawmakers and U.S. officials who have championed foreign aid, democracy and human rights fear that President-elect Donald Trump will financially and rhetorically cripple America's non-military influence around the world — damage that could prove harder to repair than the kind inflicted by George W. Bush's use of torture. [...] His victory was so shocking that some stakeholders now wonder if the Trump era will mark the end of America's "soft power."
I did make it to the North America Lebanese Diaspora Energy Conference. There I moderated a panel discussion on "Branding Lebanon: Buy Lebanon and Lebanese Cuisine". LDE promotes entrepreneurship in Lebanon and the support was certainly there. The line-up of expatriate participants [...] represented all that is good about the Lebanese migrant tradition.