Today we had the incredible opportunity to speak with Barbara Slavin, Acting Director for the Future of Iran Initiative. Habing traveled to Iran nine times, Slavin has an impressive amount of experience interacting with Iranians and their culture. Her most recent trip to Iran was to attend the inauguration of the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Slavin discussed Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil and Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of State. Tillerson was, in her words, “grilled” by Senator Marco Rubio for nine hours with questions such as why he wouldn’t use the term “war criminal” to describe Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Slavin noted that the Trump administration sees Russia as an ally in defeating the Islamic state. Of course it’s no secret that Trump and Putin are on friendly terms. This relationship could be potential factor in Tillerson’s resistance to labeling Putin as a “war criminal”. If Tillerson is confirmed, he will retire from ExxonMobil and take over as the 69th Secretary of State.
Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress, shared his knowledge with us in a seminar on foreign policy and relations. He is also a senior advisor for Defense Information and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. When the opportunity for questions arose, many students asked about our relations with Russia and China when Donald Trump takes office. Although Trump has friendly relations with the Russian president and he is looking to establish a
new trade relationship with China, Korb mentioned a quote that he believes sums up our nation under the Trump administration. “Nations do not have friends or enemies, just interests”, Korb stated. It’s a possibility that Trump could be using the leaders of other countries to further his international agenda. Only time will tell.
Another highlight to our fourth day in D.C. was our meeting with Representative French Hill. Representative Hill represents the 2nd district of Arkansas. As a member of the House Financial Services Committee Leadership Team, he presented a bill today that would make the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rule-making process more accountable by enhancing its cost-benefit analysis requirements and requiring the SEC to revisit its rules after implementation to ensure they are actually achieving their intended purposes. We were able to get a photo will Hill just before he went to present his bill. He even invited all of us Arkansans to breakfast in the House building on inauguration day, and we are all excited to attend!
After our meeting with Representative Hill, we toured the United States Capitol. We
learned the history behind the dome, the paintings and statues along with some interesting stories. For example, we stood in the spot where Andrew Jackson was almost assassinated! Apparently it had been raining that day, which caused both of the assassin’s guns to misfire. Luckily, Jackson was able to disable him with his walking cane and escape safely. We also ran into Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, on our tour of the Capitol. It’s hard to believe Donald Trump will be walking out onto the large stage (currently being assembled) outside to give his inaugural speech as President of the United States!