RIDICULE IS A WEAPON:

Garry Kasparov

Playing the calm voice of reason isn't my strong suit despite my chess background, but it's important to focus on what matters most so you don't lose track in all the noise and chaos that Trump creates so effortlessly. During the campaign, even during the GOP primary, I wrote extensively about the menacing and, to me, familiar nature of Trump's rhetoric. He used, and continues to use, the language of the strongman. Things are terrible and only he can solve the problems, we are surrounded by enemies and only he can protect you, etc. It's very similar to the framing that Putin and other dictators use to justify their power.

The US president shouldn't need to speak like a tyrant. But Trump's still obsessed with legitimacy; hence his constant falsehoods about overwhelming victory and crowd size. You have an entirely unqualified president with autocratic instincts and dangerous advisers, who is quite possibly compromised by a malign foreign interest. [...]

Alexander Bisley

How about Trump's "Muslim ban"?

Garry Kasparov

There are many levels with which to like or dislike Trump's executive order, and on most of them, I'm a critic. As an immigrant, if not quite a refugee, to the US myself, I'm generally very sympathetic to people forced to flee their homelands, as my family and I escaped ethnic pogroms against Armenians in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1990.

It should concern every American that Trump was so hasty to sacrifice security for a quick PR move with his base. Even the biggest fans of doing this should be alarmed by how incompetently it was handled.

Immigration has always been one of America's greatest strengths, both for its reputation in the world and in practical matters of economic and cultural wealth. Being the destination of choice for so many of the world's best and brightest has been a huge advantage, and anything that detracts from that "brain magnet" will hurt the US economically, including the workers who benefit from the startups and other jobs created by immigrants. Trump's executive order has a big symbolic effect of making the US less attractive as a destination. Many Trump supporters will see this as a feature, not a bug, but this is ignorance and xenophobia.

Living in the USSR, the image of the United States as a shining city on a hill and beacon of hope to the oppressed was very real to me. I understand that many Americans, especially on the left, may think this is corny mythology, but don't try to tell that to immigrants and refugees! Even if you are cynical, there is no denying this image is a big element of American soft power in the world, as a nation to be envied and imitated despite its flaws.

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