Amanda Knox Thanks Trump for Support, but There's a Catch

When Amanda Knox was fighting her murder conviction in Italy, Donald Trump not only publicly defended her innocence but donated to her defense, she writes in the Los Angeles Times. When Trump ran for president, however, Knox supported Hillary Clinton and wrote columns against his policies. As a result, Trump is "very upset" with her, per the New York Times, and his supporters rail against Knox for what they view as disloyalty. At the very least, they argue, she could have remained silent. In the LA Times piece, Knox pushes back against that sentiment. "What do I owe Trump? A thank you for his well-intentioned, if undiplomatic, support," she writes. "So for the record: Thank you, Mr. President." Beyond that, forget it. Knox writes that loyalty can be a dangerous thing—it may unite people in a common cause, but it can blind them as to whether that cause is just.

"By holding personal loyalty above all else, Trump and some of his supporters create a political environment where reason and justice hold little sway," she writes. Knox points out that while Trump supported her case abroad, he did the opposite closer to home in the case of the Central Park Five. He called for the death penalty despite flimsy evidence, and still views those men as guilty even though they were exonerated years after the fact. For reasons like that, she can't support Trump politically. Yes, she owes him her thanks, but what does she owe her country? "Civic engagement, careful consideration of issues that affect my fellow citizens, and support for policies that deserve support, even if it makes the president 'very upset.'" (Click for her full column.)