<ul class="summary-list"><li>We tried some beginner-friendly false-lash methods that don't require messy, goopy glue.</li><li>New types of false-lash products are attempting to simplify the process.</li><li>Some methods are pre-glued <keyword id="36140" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lashes">lashes</keyword> and magnetic lashes with colorful magnetic liner to match.</li></ul><p><em>Following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Putting on <keyword id="1323213" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="False-lashes">false lashes</keyword> can be really tricky, but here are a few products that make the process quick and easy.</p><p>The Ardell Aqua Lashes have a water-activated lash band so you can skip the messy glue application. First, trim the lashes to fit your eye shape. Then, dip the lash band in water. Make sure to fully saturate it. After that, shake off the excess and apply to your eye.</p><p>The Kiss Lash Glue Liner actually works as both an eyeliner and a lash glue, so you don't have to worry about getting glue on your lashes or your falsies not blending in with your lash line. Just apply the glue liner like a regular eyeliner. Then you can apply your false lashes.</p><p>Pre-glued lashes are also a great alternative if you struggle with applying false lashes. These are from Eylure. Trim them down to the right size, and apply starting at the center of the eye. Make sure you lightly press the falsies to your lash line to make sure that they stick.</p><p>Magnetic lashes and liner aren't only really easy to apply, but you also get to readjust your lashes at any time without worrying about them coming off. These lashes and this colorful liner are from Glamnetic. Apply the magnetic liner like normal eyeliner, and then just pop on the false lashes.</p>

4 easy false-lash methods for beginners

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Applying <keyword id="1323213" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="False-lashes">false lashes</keyword> can be a super-intimidating process for anyone, especially <keyword id="29496" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Makeup">makeup</keyword> beginners.</li><li><a href="https://amzn.to/2xctwxk">Ardell says its Press On Lashes</a> are "self-adhering" and "perfect for beginners" because they don't require any glue and can be repositioned once applied.</li><li>The <keyword id="36140" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lashes">lashes</keyword> prove to be more comfortable than regular false lashes, but they don't have the staying power to last all day.</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p><em>Following is a transcription for the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p><strong>Nico: </strong>Hey, guys, it's Nico. I hope you're all staying safe. I have a weird one today. These are Ardell Press On Lashes. I was shopping on Amazon one day. These popped up in my suggested, and I was like, yes, I want that. It's kinda like the same thing as press-on nails, you know? Like, you know that they're not gonna last that long, but we're still gonna try them anyways.</p><p>All you have to do is put the little applicator near your eye, press the lash on, and it should stick on your lash just fine. So, I'm really excited to try these out, but they kind of sound too good to be true. So, they just come in, like, this little tray. And they just pop out, I think, if you hold it like...oop! Oh, there it is. But it's supposed to be really bendy, so you can kind of shape the lash band to the shape of your actual eye, which is helpful.</p><p>I already have mascara on, obviously. I usually put on mascara before I put on false lashes. I wanted to literally just be like [clicks] but I know that's not what's about to happen. I'm gonna struggle.</p><p>Oh, my God, this is already really hard. OK. I'm nervous. OK, I'm stalling. All righty. Oh! Why did it look so easy in the frickin' little infomercial? I have a feeling what's making them so hard to apply is that they're too long for my eye.</p><p>So I'm gonna just trim this little corner right here and see if it's easier to kind of plop on. That's not that bad. So much better.</p><p>Oh, my God! Wait, actually, it sticks. Like, it has the sticky power, but definitely needed a trim. And I feel like they actually look pretty good. They're a little long for my taste. They're comfortable. These little applicators, I don't think, help at all when it comes to putting them on because it is so not, like, press and go. You kind of have to work with them. Are they gonna last me the entire day? That has yet to be determined, but right now they feel secure.</p><p>I have one more test to see if they're actually secure. Well, I wasn't expecting that. But, somehow, these press-on lashes are still on my eyeballs right now. I think all that's left to do is just wait and see if they actually get more loose as I blink and the day goes on. So I'll check back with you guys later.</p><p>So, it has been maybe seven to eight hours since I applied them. And, yeah, technically they're still attached to my eyeballs, but literally hanging on by a thread. Like, do you see this one has, like, a lot of lifting? They did remain comfortable, which is something I can't say for normal, regular false lashes, but, unfortunately, just not very long lasting.</p><p>If you're doing something that's quick, maybe an hour or two, I feel like these are a great alternative. And they're super, super easy to work with. So I think I kinda like them. Oh, my God, I can't get too close.</p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.insider.com/self-adhering-false-lashes-attach-without-traditional-glue-2020-5">Insider</a>

Self-adhering false lashes are perfect more makeup beginners

<ul class="summary-list"><li>We test out the <a href="https://moitiecosmetics.com/">Moitié Cosmetics 10-Day At-Home Lash Extension Deluxe Starter Kit</a>, which promises 10-plus days of waterproof, damage-free <keyword id="3128751" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lash-extensions">lash extensions</keyword>.</li><li>The kit comes with a lash bond and sealant that bond the false-lash segments to your natural <keyword id="36140" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lashes">lashes</keyword>.</li><li>The lashes fall short of expectations, falling off segment by segment before the 10-day-wear test is over.</li></ul><p><em>Following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p><strong>Nico Reyes:</strong> I've actually never gotten lash extensions, but I've always wanted to, so I was really excited when I got an Instagram ad for these Moitié Cosmetics 10-day at-home lash extensions. Please don't bully me if I said that brand name wrong. These are do-it-yourself lash extensions that are supposed to be easy to apply, waterproof, and last 10 days. The kit comes with three pairs of segmented lash extensions, the 10-day SuperLash bond, the 10-day SuperLash sealant, a SuperLash applicator, and the SuperLash removal gel. I like that it comes with a product that's specifically made to remove the lash extensions, because I definitely wouldn't know how to remove them without ripping my own lashes out.</p><p>The first step is priming the tops of my natural lashes with the 10-day lash bond. I've never done this before, so this is a learning process for me. They feel so sticky. Now I'm supposed to take these lash segments -- these are the actual extensions -- apply the bond onto these, and then start applying them to my eye. This kit came with these very fancy lash tweezers, and it says to use these to pick them up, so let me start with one of these outer pieces. Oh, God, everything feels so delicate, which is bad, because I'm not the most delicate person. It says that the segments have to be slightly touching each other. So let's move on to the next piece. This is really intimidating, especially if you're somebody who is not super familiar with wearing false lashes or anything like that. I feel like this is stressful. I know nothing about lash extensions, so I might be totally just dumb on this subject, but the fact that this lash bond is black, I feel like, is making this process a lot harder than it has to be, because now I'm worried about getting it in the exact right placement without making a mess and getting the lash bond everywhere. And it doesn't come off super easy once it dries. I'm using my angry voice.</p><p><strong>Producer:</strong> She's having a meltdown.</p><p><strong>Nico:</strong> I'm having a meltdown! On camera! So, now I'm supposed to squeeze my natural lashes together with the lash extensions with the fancy tweezers. I'm kind of scared that I'm gonna pinch myself. That's my worst nightmare. But this is the most important step into making them last a long time. Now what I have to do is apply the 10-day sealant, and I apply this on the underside, like a mascara, to my natural lashes. This is just supposed to help the bond, I think, dry quicker and extend the wear of the lashes.</p><p>Here's what they look like finally done. I don't think they look as terrible as I thought they were going to when I was applying, but they definitely don't look as good as they would if I went to a professional. But that's saying more about my bad application skills than the actual kit itself. I do think that you might struggle with the application process if you've never used a kit like this or even if you're somebody who is like me and doesn't apply falsies very often, and this bond is not the easiest to work with. It's sticky, it's black, and it gets everywhere. It looks smudgy, so you really do have to have a lot of patience.</p><p>One of the reasons I really wanted to try this kit out is because the bond claims to be waterproof. I don't think that means fully saturate your lashes every single day, but I obviously am going to be showering over the next 10 days, so let's see how these lashes hold up.</p><p>So, it is the morning of day five wearing these lash extensions, and I feel like I look bad. I think we're in bad shape. It's not looking as good as it did when I first applied them, at all. And I think that has, like, 90% to do with me sleeping while wearing these. I feel like if you're gonna do this, you probably need to invest in one of those, like, eye masks with the bulbous eye part that doesn't crush your lash extensions. At some point, the inner corners fell off and I just did not notice. Because if you look at this eye, I don't know. I really couldn't tell the difference. I have a very strong suspicion that the reason why the inner corners fell off and not any of the other lash segments, at least not yet, is because there's little to no hair in the inner part of my lash line. I barely have any lashes in there. They're all very short, wispy little hairs. These need something to hold on to, and I don't think that whatever I got in here is enough.</p><p>So, now I'm gonna bring you guys with me into the shower and show you how I've been washing my face and all that. This is pretty much what I've been doing every single day. It's not that different from my usual. It's not like I'm always rubbing soap into my eyes. I think also the fact that I haven't been wearing makeup and my face has been clean makes this all a lot easier. So, I do think that they're waterproof, to a certain degree.</p><p>Obviously, my lashes are not in the best shape right now, and my left eye is looking particularly rough, but before I get into it, let me just work on removing these, and then we'll talk. So, what I have to do is apply the SuperLash removal gel on my lash line using the little Q-tip that comes with the kit, and I have to let it sit for five minutes. And it says that the lashes should come off "like butter." The lashes really did slide right off after the five minutes with the remover, so I'm impressed by how quick that process was. It was super easy.</p><p>So, the good news is that my lashes are still in great condition, my natural lashes. It doesn't look like any damage was done to them, they look exactly the same, and I didn't notice any shedding as I was removing the extensions from my eye. The bad news is these definitely did not last 10 days, at least not on me. And I have a strong feeling that it has to do with the way I was sleeping, considering that most of the lashes that fell off were on my left eye, and I sleep on my left side. I don't think that this kit compares to actual lash extensions. For the most part, the extensions were waterproof, but because they didn't last the full 10 days like it promised it would, I have to say I don't think this kit is worth it.</p>

Testing long-lasting waterproof at-home lash extensions

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ae9aa0019ee8622008b476d-1500/lim hyeon-ju.jpg" border="0" alt="lim hyeon ju" data-mce-source="MBC News/YouTube/Business Insider" data-mce-caption="A composite image of South Korean Lim Hyeon-ju in full makeup and contact lenses, and in her glasses." /><p class="source"><span>MBC News/YouTube/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">South Korean Lim Hyeon-ju in full makeup and contact lenses, and in her glasses.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>A South Korean news anchor challenged her country's beauty norms by appearing on air with glasses.</strong></li><li><strong>Lim Hyeon-ju used to wear contact lenses and false lashes every day after waking up at 2:40 a.m. for an early morning shift.</strong></li><li><strong>She made the change after her eyes became too dry and it was tough for her to focus.</strong></li><li><strong>While male anchors often wear glasses on air, this was the first time a female presenter for a major TV network had done so.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />A South Korean news anchor defied her country's stringent beauty norms for women by deciding to ditch her contact lenses and false eyelashes, and wear glasses on air instead.</p><p>Lim Hyeon-ju, who typically wakes up at 2:40 a.m. every day for her 6 a.m. broadcast, started appearing last month on the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) morning show with a pair of black-and-gold, round-framed glasses.</p><p>Male broadcasters on South Korea often appear on air wearing glasses, but this was the first time a female presenter for a major TV network had done so, <a href="http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2018/04/12/0200000000AKR20180412063000005.HTML">according to Korea's Yonhap News agency</a>.</p><p>Lim's eyes had become so dry and tired from wearing contact lenses and false lashes every day that she had to use artificial tears to moisten them, the anchor told Yonhap. She added that she found it difficult to work because her eyes were so dry.</p><p>She wrote in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BhfQzMDF6q4/?taken-by=anna_hyunju">an Instagram post</a>, which has garnered hundreds of messages of support:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"I have to wake up early in the morning for the morning news, but when I have insufficient sleeping time and short preparation time, I sometimes want to wear glasses. I felt I could focus more on the news if I reduced my time and fatigue. [...]</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Viewers are also focusing on the nature on the news, not the appearance of the anchor."</p><p>Lim added that she "needed a little courage" to wear glasses on air at first, but has since become encouraged by her thousands of messages of support that she would continue to do so. She has regularly worn glasses in her broadcasts ever since.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ae9aeb419ee861f008b477c-1500/lim hyeon-ju bulletin.png" border="0" alt="lim hyeon ju bulletin" data-mce-source="MBC News/YouTube" /><p class="source"><span>MBC News/YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">Lim, here on May 2, has regularly worn glasses in her daily broadcasts.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>South Korean women are held to notoriously high standards for beauty - the country has the most cosmetic surgeries per capita in the world, with <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/18/south-koreas-cosmetic-surgery-industry-faces-backlash-cultural/">almost one million procedures</a> every year.</p><p>Not wearing a full face of makeup to work - regardless of the industry - can also be deemed unprofessional in certain South Korean offices, <a href="https://qz.com/1266600/the-rare-sight-of-women-wearing-glasses-in-korea-speaks-to-its-unjust-beauty-norms/">Quartz reported</a>.</p><p>A recent poll also found that more than half of 552 South Korean workers polled said they had never seen a female coworker in glasses before - even though 70% of South Korea's population under 30 are reported to be near-sighted, Quartz noted.</p><p>Furthermore, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/plastic-surgery-in-south-korean-popular-among-flight-attendant-candidates-2018-4">because South Korean job postings typically require photographs</a>, as well as asking for applicants' height and weight, many applicants have said they felt pressured to appear attractive.</p><p>A 2016 survey by a national job portal found that more than 60% of human resources personnel found that an applicant's appearance affected his or her chances at getting the job.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5ae9b0a119ee865c008b4787-2400/ap320731629315.jpg" border="0" alt="korea plastic surgery" data-mce-source="Ahn Young-joon/AP" /><p class="source"><span>Ahn Young-joon/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Cosmetic surgery being advertised prominently in a South Korean subway station.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One in three South Korean women between 19 and 29 have already undergone cosmetic surgery, <a href="http://www.gallup.co.kr/gallupdb/reportContent.asp?seqNo=656&amp;pagePos=1&amp;selectYear=0&amp;search=3&amp;searchKeyword=%BC%BA%C7%FC%BC%F6%BC%FA">Gallup Korea found in 2015</a>.</p><p>The most popular procedure is the <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/south-korea-is-the-plastic-surgery-capital-of-the-world-2015-9?r=US&amp;IR=T/#jk-is-located-in-apgujeong-a-riverside-area-in-gangnam-seoul-1">"double-eyelid" surgery</a>, which creates creases in the eyelids that result in the appearance of bigger eyes. Another popular one is the "smile surgery," which makes the person look like they have a slightly upturned mouth at all times.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-addiction-teens-break-bone-lose-iphone-2018-4">Teens would rather break their bones than lose their phones</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/9fZpTXrH-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

A South Korean reporter wore glasses on TV in a dramatic break with the country's insane beauty standards for women

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fake <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/facial-hair">facial hair</a> can be made several different ways: the hairs can be tied together onto a lace piece, laid directly onto a performer's face, punched into a prosthetic piece, or glued onto a fake head and then floated off as one piece.</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/category/makeup-artists">Makeup artists</a> have to make sure they choose the correct blend of colors and the right strand of hair that will match the texture of a given piece of <keyword id="695150" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Facial-hair">facial hair</keyword>.</li><li>John Blake created a durable lace beard for Kurt Russell after he had to shave his real beard for "<a href="https://www.insider.com/category/guardians-of-the-galaxy">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</a>" while Richard Redlefsen had to lay and blend pieces of hair into Martin Starr's beard to make it look longer in "<keyword id="6357722" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>."</li></ul><p><em>Following is a full transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p><strong>Ian Phillips:</strong> The average diameter of human hair is 17 to 181 micrometers. Not centimeters; not millimeters; micrometers.</p><p>And whether they're applied to a prosthetic piece or woven in, movie <keyword id="29496" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Makeup">makeup</keyword> artists have to painstakingly apply each micro hair to create something as realistic as this, Kurt Russell's beard in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." In some of these shots, Kurt is sporting his real beard, while in others it's a fake.</p><p>Can't tell the difference? Neither can I, and neither can this guy, John Blake, the makeup artist who made the fake beard for the movie.</p><p>Hollywood makeup artists have to make facial hair so convincing that even they're not sure what's real in the end.</p><p>There are four methods makeup artists use to apply fake facial hair, all of which have to look real. Three types are applied onto an actor's face, and the fourth type is actually applied to a hyperreal prosthetic head.</p><p>The benefit of working with a prosthesis is that you can make the hair look as if it's coming straight from the skin, like real hair. You do this by punching it in. But punching those fine hairs is a time-consuming process.</p><p>For example, to get eyelashes right, a makeup artist like Kenneth Calhoun takes a long strand of hair and bends it. He then takes a needle and punches two eyelashes in at a time. After the few hours it takes to punch in the hairs, he focuses on the details.</p><p><strong>Kenneth Calhoun:</strong> You can't just put a bunch of lashes going out straight. They don't stick out like that; they fan out.</p><p><strong>Ian:</strong> Along with fanning out, real lashes have a curl to them. To get a distinct bend, he uses his needle to wrap the hairs around a heated iron. You can see how they both fan out and curl.</p><p>Kenneth punched stubble into a fake head when working on the 2020 film "The Rental." But when working with a prosthesis, giving it the illusion of hair can be almost as realistic as punching in the real thing.</p><p>For this prosthetic head, Kenneth painted a mix of grays on the neck that perfectly gives the appearance of shadow and stubble with no hairs applied.</p><p>The second way is to use the lace method, probably the most commonly used method to apply fake hair to an actor's face.</p><p><strong>John Blake:</strong> Here's your piece of lace. It's made out of nylon, and it has little holes, and a little hook is used to tie each individual hair.</p><p><strong>Ian:</strong> Like punching hairs into a prosthesis, the lace method is labor intensive because each hair is added with a needle. The difference? Instead of punching it in, it's threaded through holes.</p><p>Here, makeup artist Kristy Staky is tying an especially long beard for the show "Dwight in Shining Armor." At the top of the beard, she only ties one hair per hole. Farther down, she ties more hairs to a hole, but spreads them out. If she did one hair per hole throughout the whole piece, it would get too dense and then look fake.</p><p>Lace pieces often take up to six days to knot and style, and the average lace beard contains 200 hairs per square inch.</p><p>It's why John Blake needed to work with four other makeup artists to tie Kurt Russell's fake beard together in a pinch for "Guardians 2" after the actor had to shave his real beard for a flashback and didn't have time to grow it back.</p><p>Because all the hairs are tied in, lace pieces stay tight on the face, making them ideal for action <keyword id="406" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Movies">movies</keyword> and even more ideal for blending into the skin. This is why you might've never guessed that Captain Barbossa's beard in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise was fake. It's one of John Blake's many masterpieces.</p><p>Still, when working on a lace piece, it's not as simple as recreating how an actor's hair would naturally grow. There's a ton of creativity involved, depending on what the script calls for.</p><p>For "Captain America: Civil War," John made these eyebrows for William Hurt to play Thunderbolt Ross. John: He had to be a military man, and he wanted to have a more hawkish-like quality, and to create this hawkish-like quality we created false eyebrows.</p><p><strong> Ian:</strong> To get the right effect, choosing the right type of hair was key. Yak hair, which is thick and coarse, is commonly used to replicate beards, but eyebrows are so thin and delicate that John went with angora hair instead, which is much smaller in diameter but still made the actor's eyebrows look thicker than his real-life brows.</p><p>Where lace-applied fake facial hair can leave an actor feeling stiff, the third method lets an actor move their face more freely. It's called hand laying. John C. Reilly is wearing a hand-laid beard in "Walk Hard," and you can see just how expressive he is.</p><p>For this method, makeup artists apply glue to the actor's skin and place the hair in clumps straight onto the performer's face. By putting the clumps of loose hair between the thumb and forefinger and dragging it back and forth on the glue, John can even leave natural stubble behind on the cheeks and jawline.</p><p>Hand laying hair is also the best technique if you want to add more hair to an actor's already existing facial hair. The key is hiding the line between where the real facial hair ends and where the fake hair starts, like the makeup artist for "Silicon Valley" had to do to actor Martin Starr for the series finale. To make sure the line between real and fake was invisible, he curled the hairs in and out until it looked like this.</p><p>To show the fourth and final method, we asked Kenneth to recreate, well, my beard.</p><p>So, this is about the longest I'll let my beard grow before it really needs a trim.</p><p>Kenneth is going to use the floating method, which is great for actors who aren't on set every day, because this type of hairpiece only lasts for about one or two applications.</p><p>To make a floated beard, Kenneth forms the beard on a fake head, then hairsprays it. Then the whole piece gets glued onto an actor's face. Even though the process is simpler, it still requires attention to detail.</p><p><strong>Kenneth:</strong> There are a few things that I noticed, was just the coarseness underneath the chin. Something else I noticed is, like, the direction of your sideburns, how they kind of swirl as they go down. You have, like, a couple of parts here where your mustache grows down, and you have a second area that grows down as well.</p><p><strong>Ian:</strong> To match the different consistencies of my facial hair, Kenneth used a combination of yak hair and crepe wool.</p><p>The crepe wool is so curly that it needs to bathe in warm water first. You can make a lot more shapes with the crepe wool, so it's better for the curlier parts of the beard, while the yak hair is better for the straighter hairs. And like any piece of real facial hair, there's a lot of grooming and styling along the way.</p><p>Now, the big reveal.</p><p>Oh, my God.</p><p><strong>Kenneth:</strong> You like it?</p><p><strong>Ian:</strong> Looks exactly like mine. I could wear that on my face, and I think people would not be able to tell the difference.</p>

How fake facial hair is made for movies & TV

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a7b4fc5193a7a7c2f8b4675-1280/ap18038682878415.jpg" alt="Rob Porter (center) in the Oval Office." data-mce-source="Evan Vucci/AP" data-mce-caption="Rob Porter (center) in the Oval Office." /><p class="source"><span>Evan Vucci/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Rob Porter (center) in the Oval Office.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned Wednesday after his two ex-wives publicly alleged years of physical and emotional abuse.</strong></li><li><strong>Both women told the FBI about the alleged abuse in interviews conducted last year as part of Porter's application for a security clearance. </strong></li><li><strong>Porter called the allegations a "coordinated smear campaign" on Wednesday. </strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />White House staff secretary Rob Porter, an integral part of President Donald Trump's inner circle, resigned Wednesday after both of his ex-wives came forward to allege years of physical and mental abuse.</p><p>Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby alleged that Porter physically and mentally abused them during their marriages. Holderness, married to Porter from 2003 to 2008, provided photos of a black eye she claimed she suffered from Porter. Willoughby, married to Porter from 2009 to 2013, provided a copy of a 2010 restraining order she filed against Porter.</p><p>The Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5325941/White-House-Comms-director-Hope-Hicks-dating-Rob-Porter.html">reported last week</a> that Porter is romantically involved with White House communications director Hope Hicks. </p><h2>His first marriage - 'He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face' </h2><p>Holderness, who met Porter at a Mormon church in 2000 while she was a student at Wellesley College, says that her ex-husband regularly physically and emotionally abused her throughout their five-year marriage. In 2005, during a trip to Florence, Italy, she said Porter punched her in the face. </p><p>"He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face," Holderness <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/07/rob-porter-wives-abuse-trump-aide/">told the Intercept</a>.</p><p>"I didn't go the police because I was scared, I was in Italy alone and I didn't know what to do," she <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5362823/Ex-wife-WH-aide-dating-Hope-Hicks-says-choked-her.html">told the Daily Mail</a>.</p><p>Holderness <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/politics/rob-porter-ex-wives-white-house/index.html">told CNN</a> that she made Porter take photos of her injuries - which included a black eye. Several of the pictures were <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5362823/Ex-wife-WH-aide-dating-Hope-Hicks-says-choked-her.html">published in the Daily Mail</a>. </p><p><span>"In his contrition, I had him take photos of what he did," she said. </span></p><p>Over the next several years, Holderness said that Porter would assault her when he lost his temper. </p><p>"He would throw me down on the bed, then put his full body weight on top of me, then grind a knee or elbow into my body, expressing rage," she said.</p><p>At times, Porter would choke her, which Holderness called "scary, humiliating, and dehumanizing" but said "it wasn't like it was life-threatening."</p><p>Holderness moved out of the couple's apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts while the two attended graduate school at Harvard. After spending a year apart, Holderness moved back in and the emotional abuse resumed. She took a leave of absence from her graduate program, telling her professors that her "<span>marriage was a nightmare" before the two divorced. </span></p><p><span>Holderness' brother, Trevor Paulson, and a close female friend who declined to be named both <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/politics/rob-porter-ex-wives-white-house/index.html">told CNN</a> that Holderness had described Porter's abuse to them. </span></p><p>Holderness, who is remarried and works for the federal Government Accountability Office in Washington, said that she told multiple bishops in her Mormon church about the abuse, but they did not encourage her to act. </p><p>"It wasn't until there was a second wife and then a long-time girlfriend reaching out to me, who was experiencing some weird things. I started to realize that he keeps getting away with it," Colbie said. "It's a pattern now, it hasn't gone away."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a7b72e1cdab5f622c8b479d-1280/ap18032731908456.jpg" alt="Rob Porter (far right) with National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and White House chief of staff John Kelly" data-mce-source="Andrew Harnik/AP" data-mce-caption="Rob Porter (far right) with National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and White House chief of staff John Kelly" /><p class="source"><span>Andrew Harnik/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Rob Porter (far right) with National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and White House chief of staff John Kelly</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>His second marriage - 'I called the police, afraid he would break in' </h2><p>Porter married his second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, in late 2009 after the two dated for less than six months. Willoughby alleges that her husband's verbal abuse began during their honeymoon in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. </p><p>"I can't remember what triggered it. He lashed out and was really angry, and both under his breath and explicitly to me called me a 'f------ b----' and 'f------ ridiculous,'" she said. "He accused me of not caring about him or not caring about his needs."</p><p>About three months later, during a period in which the two were informally separated, Porter allegedly came to Willoughby's apartment to retrieve his clothes, refused to leave, and punched in the glass on the locked front door while his wife was inside. </p><p>Willoughby, who now works as an educator and writer, filed a protective order with the police. </p><p>"I asked him several times to leave with his things, but he did not until I picked up the phone to call our clergy member. While he was gone, I took his clothes and put them in a suitcase on the front porch," Willoughby wrote in the order. "When he returned a few minutes later, he punched in the glass on the door. I called the police, afraid he would break in."</p><p>Willoughby told yhe Daily Mail that she spent the marriage "walking on eggshells" because of Porter's anger issues. On December 22, 2010, just over a year into their marriage, she said Porter pulled her naked from the shower and yelled at her. </p><p>"It was a glass shower door, he opened it and dragged me by my shoulders out of the shower to yell," she said.  "Immediately upon seeing my reaction to that, he released me and apologized but it doesn't take away that he was angry enough that that happened."</p><p>Willoughby wrote about the alleged abuse she suffered in <a href="http://www.bornebackceaselessly.com/journal/2017/4/24/why-i-stayed">a series of blog posts</a>. She says that Porter called her last year to pressure her to take down the blog posts and asked her what she had told the FBI about their relationship.</p><p>"If he was a monster all the time, perhaps it would have been easier to leave," Willoughby <a href="http://www.bornebackceaselessly.com/journal/2017/4/24/why-i-stayed">wrote in one blog post</a>. "But he could be kind and sensitive. And so I stayed. He cried and apologized. And so I stayed. He offered to get help and even went to a few counseling sessions and therapy groups. And so I stayed. He belittled my intelligence and destroyed my confidence. And so I stayed. I felt ashamed and trapped. And so I stayed. Friends and clergy didn't believe me. And so I stayed. I was pregnant. And so I stayed. I lost the pregnancy and became depressed. And so I stayed."</p><p>Willoughby <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5359731/Ex-wife-Rob-Porter-Trumps-secretary-tells-marriage.html">also told the Daily Mail</a> that a woman who recently dated Porter sent her a message informing her that Porter was considering hiring a private investigator or journalist to dig up and publish information about her. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a7b7249e559f027018b504a-1178/ap17226548893590.jpg" alt="Rob Porter with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders" data-mce-source="Alex Brandon/AP" data-mce-caption="Rob Porter with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders" /><p class="source"><span>Alex Brandon/AP</span></p><p class="caption">Rob Porter with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>'A coordinated smear campaign'</h2><p>On Wednesday, Porter called the allegations "outrageous" and "simply false," but did not specifically deny having committed any of the alleged acts. </p><p>"I took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described," Porter said in a statement. "I have been transparent and truthful about these vile claims, but I will not further engage publicly with a coordinated smear campaign."</p><p>He went on, "My commitment to public service speaks for itself. I have always put duty to country first and treated others with respect. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have served in the Trump Administration and will seek to ensure a smooth transition when I leave the White House."</p><p>The White House vigorously defended Porter on Wednesday, telling reporters that no one asked Porter to resign and that the president and top aides still have "full confidence" in Porter. Remarkably, the White House did not acknowledge or express concern about the severity of the allegations.  </p><p>"Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor, and I can't say enough good things about him," White House chief of staff John Kelly said on Wednesday. "He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him."</p><p>White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president feels similarly. </p><p>"Rob Porter has been effective in his role as staff secretary," she said in a statement. "The president and chief of staff have full confidence in his abilities and his performance."</p><p><em>Allan Smith contributed to this report.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/president-trump-theresa-may-davos-false-rumour-2018-1">President Trump tells Theresa May not to believe the 'false rumour' that he doesn't 'have great respect for everything you're doing'</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/gRVAvL1d-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The shocking allegations of abuse against the top White House staffer who just resigned

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/531ddb9aecad045e1b932fc2-1200-800/rtr3gbs9.jpg" border="0" alt="malaysia airlines sand art" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;ALID=2C0408T5QQTTX&amp;PBC=2CKRYD1D85D:2C04082VM4GXA:2C0408T5QQTTX">Reuters</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>China's state-run media on Monday lashed out at Malaysia and its national carrier over their handling of the missing passenger jet, calling for a swifter response effort and tightened airport security.</p>
<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama meanwhile spoke by telephone Monday, with Obama offering his sympathy and saying the US was willing to work "comprehensively" with China on the rescue effort, Beijing's foreign ministry said.</p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 were from China, and if the loss of the aircraft is confirmed, it would be China's second-worst air disaster in history.</p>
<p>Investigations have been launched into suspect passengers after officials said two Europeans whose names were on the passenger manifest -- who both had their passports stolen in Thailand -- were not on board.</p>
<p>"The Malaysian side cannot shirk its responsibilities," the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a scathing editorial. "The initial response from Malaysia was not swift enough.</p>
<p>"There are loopholes in the work of Malaysia Airlines and security authorities," it said.</p>
<p>"If it is due to a deadly mechanical breakdown or pilot error, then Malaysia Airlines should take the blame. If this is a terrorist attack, then the security check at the Kuala Lumpur airport and on the flight is questionable."</p>
<p><strong>Terrorism fears </strong></p>
<p>The China Daily newspaper wrote in an editorial that "terrorism cannot be ruled out", with Malaysian and international authorities still at a loss to explain how at least two passengers were able to board with stolen Italian and Austrian passports.</p>
<p>"Who were they and why were they using false passports?" the paper asked.</p>
<p>"The fact that some of the passengers on board were traveling with false passports should serve as a reminder to the whole world that security can never be too tight, at airports in particular, since terrorism, the evil of the world, is still trying to stain human civilization with the blood of innocent lives," it added.</p>
<p>Malaysia's Home Minister Zahid Hamidi reportedly said Sunday that the two passengers using stolen passports appeared to be ethnically Asian.</p>
<p>"I am still puzzled how come (immigration officers) cannot think: an Italian and Austrian but with Asian facial features," he was quoted as saying by Malaysia's national news agency Bernama.</p>
<p>At a Beijing hotel, Malaysian embassy officials were processing visa applications for families wanting to take up an airline offer to travel to Kuala Lumpur to be closer to the rescue operations.</p>
<p>Scores of relatives made their way into the room, some in groups of five or six, clutching handkerchiefs and wiping away tears from their faces.</p>
<p>Others said they would not go. "There is more we can do here in China," one woman told AFP. "They haven't even found the plane yet."</p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Calls for action </strong></p>
<p>Some have criticized Malaysia Airlines' response and information disclosure, asking the Chinese government to devote "strong attention" to the incident.</p>
<p>Beijing sent a working group to Malaysia Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said, including officials from the foreign, public security and transport ministries, tasked with investigating the incident and helping passengers' family members in Malaysia.</p>
<p>The aircraft's disappearance came one week after a deadly attack at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, in which a group of knife-wielding assailants killed 29 people and wounded 143.</p>
<p>Both Beijing and Washington have condemned the mass stabbing as an act of terror, and Chinese authorities stepped up security checks in the days after the attack, which they blamed on separatists from the restive far western region of Xinjiang.</p>
<p>In his phone call with Obama, Xi said China will maintain "close contact" with the US, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.</p>
<p>The Global Times noted that China has the world's greatest number of outbound travelers, with Malaysia a popular destination. A total of nearly 100 million Chinese tourists visited foreign countries last year, up 14 million from the previous year.</p>
<p>"We pay special attention to the security situation of countries where the Chinese people are keen to travel," the paper wrote, adding that the incident "must be investigated thoroughly and the crux of problems on the Malaysian side must be found out".</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.</p>
</div>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT1iODdhMjgzMjgxNzhhN2IwZDZkY2M5NzZmODE2YmUyYyZub25jZT1iMDE2YjY4Yy1hYjZlLTRmMWYtYmY5Yi1hN2RkZDcyNzU5ZWUmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>

Chinese Media Slam Malaysia Handling Of Missing Flight 

<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/undividing"><img src="https://static.businessinsider.com/image/5956bcd0a3630f2c008b6f2c-800/bi-graphicsundividing america800x100post.png" alt="BI Graphics_Undividing America_800x100_Post" data-mce-source="BI" /></a></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59824c304fc3c01d008b4832-2400/louras.jpg" alt="Christopher Louras Rutland Vermont" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Elise Amendola" data-mce-caption="Chris Louras poses outside an exhibit featuring Syrian art in downtown Rutland, Vt. After months of bitter debate, the down-on-its heels city is preparing to start accepting up to 100 Syrian refugees" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Elise Amendola</span></p><p class="caption">Chris Louras outside an exhibit of Syrian art in Rutland, Vermont.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Chris Louras, the former mayor of Rutland, Vermont, had a plan to bring 25 Syrian refugee families to town.</strong></li><li><strong>Many residents criticized Louras over what they saw as the 'secrecy' in which the plan was carried out.</strong></li><li><strong>The issue divided the town into two camps, with both sides furious with the other. A recent town meeting devolved into insults and shouting.</strong></li><li><strong>Louras lost his reelection bid, and only three of the 25 families made it to Rutland.</strong></li></ul><p>The plan was supposed to revitalize the economy of a sleepy Vermont town, and give its small workforce a much-needed boost. It seemed like a win-win. But when Rutland's five-term mayor Chris Louras announced in April 2016 that 25 refugee families would be coming to the struggling postindustrial town, he awoke fear and vitriol that eventually cost him his job.</p><p>This was around the time Donald Trump, then a candidate for the Republican nomination, proposed national bans on refugees and immigrants from certain majority-Muslim countries. Rutland became a referendum on the nation's willingness to welcome displaced people from around the world.</p><p>Some in the town formed a group called "Rutland Welcomes," a volunteer group that planned to find housing, transportation, and jobs for prospective refugees, and even gave the few who arrived baskets of fruit and vegetables.</p><p>Those against the plan formed "Rutland First," a loose-knit coalition of residents whose opinions ranged from skepticism at whether Rutland could bear the costs of resettling the refugees to outright hostility and fear-mongering.</p><p>Then, on March 6, came the mayoral election.</p><p>Louras, an Army veteran who had been a popular and uncontroversial mayor for a decade, was ousted by alderman David Allaire, who had lost to Louras in two previous elections. Allaire clobbered Louras, centering his campaign on opposition to the plan, which he criticized for freezing out the board of aldermen and Rutland residents.</p><p>The election was "absolutely" a referendum on refugees, Jennie Gartner, a local high-school history teacher and a representative of Rutland Welcomes, told Business Insider.</p><p>Allaire's election win, combined with Trump's travel ban barring refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq and Syria, all but decided the issue.</p><p>Only three refugee families - two Syrian and one Iraqi - have been resettled so far.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5982502f4fc3c02d008b483a-2400/ap16328774098803.jpg" alt="Rutland vermont" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Elise Amendola" data-mce-caption="A pedestrian walks onto Center Street in downtown Rutland." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Elise Amendola</span></p><p class="caption">Downtown Rutland.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>An American town like any other</strong></h2><p>In 2015, Louras had an idea to fix the town's "unhealthily low unemployment rate."</p><p>Rutland was shedding population. Since the 1970s, <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/rutlandcityvermont/PST045216">16%</a> of its people have moved away, leaving homes empty and nearby businesses looking for workers.</p><p>"That's the story of many small postindustrial cities that have a declining population and a graying population," Louras told Business Insider.</p><p>Louras spotted an opportunity to get Rutland involved in the US's newly announced plan to resettle thousands of refugees from the Middle East. Rutland's businesses have tons of open, entry-level jobs, and the town has cheap, vacant housing stock for 3,000 additional residents, according to Louras, who thought refugees would be perfect candidates to solve some of the town's problems.</p><p>While only a few refugees made it to town before Louras was ousted, those who did confirmed Louras' intuition, he says. One refugee, who arrived in January, secured a full-time job at The Bakery, <a href="http://rootsrutland.com/thebakery/">a popular local café</a>, within weeks. He now splits his time between an early-morning baking shift and English-language classes, Louras said.</p><p>What Louras didn't count on was that Rutland's debate would get sucked into a larger divide stretching across the country.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59824f704fc3c01d008b4871-2400/ap16328774190286.jpg" alt="Wendy Wilton Rutland treasurer" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Elise Amendola" data-mce-caption="Rutland City Treasurer Wendy Wilton speaks outside city hall." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Elise Amendola</span></p><p class="caption">Rutland's treasurer, Wendy Wilton.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Rolling out the unwelcome mat </strong></h2><p>A month after Louras presented his plan, the town, much of it divided between Rutland Welcomes and Rutland First, began to unravel.</p><p>Some accused Louras of hatching the plan in secret.</p><p>Tim Cook, one of the founders of Rutland First and an Iraq War veteran, alleged that Louras submitted a State Department application for refugees six months before the April announcement. Breitbart, the far-right website, picked up the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/06/09/emails-reveal-mayor-conspired-secret-resettle-syrians-town/">story</a>. Small Rutland was becoming big <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword>.</p><p>"The national story out there is that we're hateful and biased, and that's bulls---," Wendy Wilton, a member of Rutland First, said. "We just wanted to know what was in that application."</p><p>Like other critics, she accused Louras of lying about the plan, saying that he told the town he intended to resettle only 100 refugees but that his actual plans were to bring 100 a year. According to Wilton, when the town aldermen requested a copy of the refugee application from the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, the nonprofit was uncooperative.</p><p>"If this was the most wonderful thing in the world, why wouldn't you want to cooperate with the local governing body?" said Wilton, who, like Cook, added that she wasn't opposed to resettling a few refugees, just not 100.</p><p>Meanwhile, on the other side, Rutland Welcomes was holding regular meetings at a Unitarian Church with hundreds of residents forming committees to push the resettlement process along, arrange English tutors, and gather donations of household goods and clothing.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5982506d76084a11068b4796-2400/ap17027862105208.jpg" alt="Rutland vermont" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Lisa Rathke" data-mce-caption="Kerry Coarse, coordinator for support services for the Northwest Primary School, shows Dania Khatib, 5, the school playground as her mother Mahasen Boshnaq, left, and father Ahmed Khatib, right, follow behind in Rutland" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Lisa Rathke</span></p><p class="caption">Kerry Coarse, coordinator for support services for the Northwest Primary School, shows a newly arrived refugee family the school playground.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Then criticism of Rutland Welcomes spread across the town.</p><p>Gartner, the high-school history teacher and a member of Rutland Welcomes, says she and others were criticized online by people associated with Rutland First for teaching her class about Islam, which is part of the state curriculum.</p><p>Gartner, Louras, and others in favor of resettlement have said that very few of those against the resettlement actually care about the secrecy of "the process," seeing it as a cover for fear. The vast majority of Rutland First, she says, is people who "were afraid of Muslims, afraid of people from other countries," she said. If Louras was planning on bringing a new tech firm to Rutland, people wouldn't criticize the way the decision came about, she added.</p><p>Many Rutlanders have said that much of the criticism falls on Louras, who they say did little to allay the concerns and anger of those against the plan. Christopher Ettori, a pro-refugee town alderman, told Business Insider that Louras didn't have "a real dialogue with people" and failed to arrange speakers or panels to educate residents why the plan would benefit the town and not sacrifice security.</p><p>Instead, Meg Hansen, a columnist for the Rutland Herald, <a href="http://www.rutlandherald.com/articles/an-end-to-liberal-moralizing/">wrote in March</a>, Louras "chose to malign his critics as racist."</p><p>For his part, Louras seemed to have little patience for Rutland First's objections.</p><p>Cook, the local doctor, maintained that he wanted to see the refugees succeed - and has even offered his services as a physician - but says he wants them to succeed by "Americanizing" themselves.</p><p>"Getting them a baseball bat, and Keystone beer by the suitcase, whatever it takes," Cook said. "You succeed in this country by accepting the fact that there is such a thing as American culture, and by practicing it."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/588d217b713ba130008b5353-2000/rtsxtvq.jpg" alt="protest jfk airport" data-mce-source="Reutesr/Andrew Kelly" data-mce-caption="A man yells during a protest against Donald Trump's travel ban outside Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, U.S., January 28, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>Reutesr/Andrew Kelly</span></p><p class="caption">A protest against President Trump's travel ban outside John F. Kennedy International Airport in January 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The national conversation</h2><p>Things came to a head in the run-up to this year's election in March. Days after Trump was sworn into office in January, he signed <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/its-not-a-muslim-ban-trump-defends-controversial-executive-order-on-refugees-2017-1">the executive order temporarily barring refugees and immigrants</a> from seven majority-Muslim countries. While his base loved it, protests broke out in cities and at airports across the country.</p><p>Rutland's mayoral election soon became a microcosm of the national debate about immigration and refugees, according to Louras, who said residents used language that echoed the rhetoric of the Trump campaign.</p><p>Trump "definitely influenced what happened here," said Gartner, who added that the administration's position on refugees gave Rutland First cover to "feel pretty safe in their fear."</p><p>As a result, Louras says, the Rutland First side wasn't willing to listen to the pro-resettlement side's explanations for why the refugees would be a boost to the town's economy.</p><p>"The noise around the irrational concerns didn't allow a lot of those rational people to listen to the facts," Louras said.</p><p>At the same time, David Allaire, Louras' opponent, ran his campaign on a message criticizing the mayor's handling of the refugee issue and called for "healing the divide" in the community. The refugee issue, combined with fury over Louras' unrelated attempt to reform the fire department, led to a landslide victory for Allaire.</p><p>"This is what sunk him, from my perspective," Gartner said of the refugee issue. "This is what Louras had to fall on his sword for."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/598250bb76084a11068b479d-2400/ap17027862081305 1.jpg" alt="Rutland Vermont" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Lisa Rathke" data-mce-caption="Newly arrived refugee Dania Khatib, 5, tours a classroom with her mother Mahasen Boshnaq, center rear, and father Ahmed Khatib, right, at the Northwest Primary School Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, in Rutland." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Lisa Rathke</span></p><p class="caption">Newly arrived refugees tour a classroom at the Northwest Primary School in Rutland.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Allaire declined requests for an interview.</p><p>In the months that followed, Allaire has done little publicly to bring the town together, alderman Ettori said. He added that he doesn't expect the new mayor to lead "some sort of reconciliation."</p><p>In some ways, Allaire is repeating Louras' mistakes. While no new refugees are expected in 2017, Allaire has met with the <span>US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) </span>and the State Department to discuss bringing 100 more refugees to the city in 2018, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting. Publicly, Allaire has said that he is deferring to the federal government on the refugee issue, according to Ettori.</p><p>And the issue, in some ways, is still raw. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a board of aldermen meeting at the end of May, a number of anti-refugee aldermen publicly lashed out at representatives from the USCRI, who were present. Members of the public, some of whom had threatened violence against the USCRI representatives, were permitted to l</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">ob personal attacks from the microphone. Policemen in the room had to step in to maintain order. Ettori called the meeting a "debacle."</span></p><p>Those that championed the resettlement, like Hunter Berryhill, a high-school English teacher in town, say that as the refugees who did make it are successful (there were three families total). He and others hope the "false stereotypes start to crumble."</p><p>Sana Mustafa, a Syrian student who arrived in the US in 2013 and visited Rutland in June, said that she too thinks that refugees suffer from stereotypes.</p><p>"There's no name. There are no faces. There are only numbers, and we're always associated with guns and terrorists," said Mustafa. "When people see me, they see me as a civilized, normal person … and that's how we all look."</p><p>Business Insider made several attempts to speak with the refugees who have settled in Rutland but was told by USCRI officials that interviews weren't a good idea for the refugees' safety, given the tense situation.</p><p>Louras, who is in regular contact with the families, said they are "faring very well."</p><p>Still, he still struggles, he says, with what went wrong with the plan.</p><p>"If I had the silver bullet, I'd still be in office," Louras said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/598250ff76084ac4198b456b-2400/ap17028496560745 1.jpg" alt="Rutland Vermont" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Lisa Rathke" data-mce-caption="Syrian refugee Ahmed Khatib, left, sits with his wife Mahasen Boshnaq, and son Mohammed in the home of their sponsoring family, Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, in Rutland." /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Lisa Rathke</span></p><p class="caption">A newly arrived Syrian refugee family in the home of their sponsoring family in Rutland.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2><strong>Unemployed</strong></h2><p>Rutland is the kind of place where people can't escape one another. Even now, Louras sees his replacement, Allaire, regularly when he goes to maintain his garden, which is a few hundred feet from the new mayor's home. The two even have the same nieces and nephews through marriage.</p><p>Louras said it's not his responsibility to help the new mayor or give him advice.</p><p>"I'm an unemployed former army helicopter test pilot. And now, I'm an unemployed former small-town mayor. I'm just looking for a job that I can be successful at," Louras said.</p><p>He doesn't think Allaire has done much to fix the issues that Louras was once criticized for.</p><p>"I'm not sure anyone can communicate the value of refugee resettlement in a way where an entire community will accept it. It's the families themselves who provide the best argument."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-was-latin-americas-richest-country-heres-how-it-fell-apart-2017-7">Venezuela was Latin America's richest country and now it is in complete crisis - here's how it fell apart</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="poZXYzYzE6mrlGtTm6Sn1IIHfESSKA9P" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'poZXYzYzE6mrlGtTm6Sn1IIHfESSKA9P',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

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