The following article by Max Greenwod was posted on The Hill website July 29, 2017:
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said on Saturday that the fact President Trump drew criticism from the Boy Scouts and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), appeared to be the result of a concerted effort by the president.
“Let me say, in one week Donald Trump got rebuked by the Boy Scouts, by the Pentagon, by the [IACP],” Lieu said on MSNBC. “You really gotta try to be that bad.”
Michael Surbaugh, the chief Scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America, apologized to the group’s members on Thursday, after Trump delivered a politically heated speech to its National Jamboree in West Virginia earlier in the week.
“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,” Surbaugh said in a statement. “That was never our intent.”
In that address, Trump discussed his efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and later recounted his November electoral victory.
The president also came under fire from lawmakers and activists on Wednesday when he abruptly announced via Twitter that he was reimplementing a ban on transgender people serving in the military.
That announcement reportedly took Pentagon officials by surprise. The Defense Department later said that it would continue to allow transgender people to serve openly until the White House issues new guidance on the matter.
Trump faced scrutiny again on Friday, this time from the IACP, after he encouraged police officers in a speech in Long Island, N.Y. to “rough up” suspects during arrests.
“Law enforcement officers are trained to treat all individuals, whether they are a complainant, suspect, or defendant, with dignity and respect,” the group said in a blog post. That post did not use Trump’s name.
View the post here.