While Trump is unequivocal in backing US-friendly authoritarian rulers, Obama was more conflicted. Testifying later Tuesday before a Senate subcommittee, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointedly refused to call Sisi a "tyrant." But not every one of these leaders is the same," said Pompeo, who liberally denounces the leaders of Venezuela and Iran as tyrants. Robert Malley, a former aide to Obama who is now president of the International Crisis Group, said the Trump administration was "playing it much more carefully" on backing protesters. Sudan's demonstrators, he said, are unlikely to be satisfied by coup leaders' decision to stay in power for two years.

Source: Daily Nation April 12, 2019 07:18 UTC