A version of this story first appeared on the TomDispatch website. Much outrage has been expressed in recent weeks over President Donald Trump's White House invitation to Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, whose "war on drugs" has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings. Criticism of Trump was especially intense given his warm public support for other authoritarian rulers, including Egypt's Abdel Fatah al-Sisi (who visited the Oval Office amid presidential praise weeks earlier), Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who got a congratulatory phone call from Trump on the recent referendum victory that cemented his powers), and Thailand's Prayuth Chan-ocha (who also received a White House invitation). But here's the strange thing: The critics generally ignored the far more substantial and long-standing support US presidents, Democrat and Republican, have offered to dozens of repressive regimes over the decades.