Trump speech to UN details robust pro-American stance
UNITED NATIONS ( AP) — President Donald Trump called the United States one of the “greatest forces for good in the history of the world, and the greatest defenders of sovereignty, security, and prosperity for all” on Tuesday in a powerful debut speech to the U.N. that laid out a strong, pro-American foreign policy.
Trump’s broadsides against “rogue regimes,” North Korea chief among them, drew murmurs from the assembled world leaders and served as a salute to his patriotism during diplomatic prime time. He said it was “far past time” for the world to confront Kim Jong Un, declaring that the North Korean leader’s pursuit of nuclear weapons poses a threat to “the entire world with an unthinkable loss of human life.”
“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime,” Trump said, mocking the North Korean leader as he sketched out potentially cataclysmic consequences. The president himself decided to work the nickname into his speech just hours before he took the dais, according to aides.
Trump spoke of his own nation’s “patience,” but said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
Trump’s overheated language was rare for a U.S. president at the rostrum of the United Nations, but the speech was textbook Trump, dividing the globe into friends and foes and taking unflinching aim at America’s enemies. North Korea’s ambassador and another top diplomat left the General Assembly chamber before he spoke to boycott his speech, leaving behind two empty chairs.
The president urged nations to work together to stop Iran’s nuclear program and defeat “loser terrorists” who wage violence around the globe. He denounced “radical Islamic terrorism,” a term that many pundits in the media refuse to use in reference to violence committed by radical Islamists. He called Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government a “criminal regime.” He said violenceplagued regions of the world “are going to hell.”
He said there was still hope the United Nations could solve “many of
these vicious and complex problems.”
His lashing of North Korea was a vigorous restatement of what’s been said by U.S. leaders before, but delivered with new intensity in the august setting of the General Assembly. After a recitation of the brutal regime’s crimes — the starvation of millions, the abduction of a Japanese girl and more — he referred to the communist government as a “band of criminals.”
Trump, who has previously warned of “fire and fury” if Pyongyang does not back down, stated emphatically that “no one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea.” And he scolded that it was “an outrage” to enable and trade with North Korea, seeming to point a finger at China, although he did not mention it by name.
Trump urged the world leaders to embrace their own “national sovereignty to do more to ensure the prosperity and security of their own countries.
“I will always put America first. Just like you, the leaders of your countries, should and always put your countries first,” he said. “We can no longer be taken advantage of or enter into a one-sided deal in which the United States gets nothing in return.”
On Iran, Trump called the government a rogue state whose chief export is “violence, bloodshed and chaos.” He castigated Tehran for squandering Iran’s wealth by supporting Syria’s Assad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and Yemen’s Houthi rebel group.
Trump called the U.N.backed Iran nuclear deal “an embarrassment” to the United States and suggested it was one of the worst international pacts ever struck. And he hinted that his administration, which has accused Tehran of aiding terrorism in the Middle East, could soon declare Iran out of compliance with the deal, which could unravel it.
“I don’t think you’ve heard the end of it,” Trump said. “Believe me.”
The administration must decide in mid-October whether it will certify that Iran is still in compliance with the agreement.
He also decried the “disastrous rule” of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and urged the U.N. to step in
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch U.S. ally, wrote on Twitter, “In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.”
Domestically, reaction largely broke down along predictable lines: Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said Trump used the U.N. “as a stage to threat-
en war.” Onetime Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tweeted that Trump “gave a strong and needed challenge” to the U.N.
The speech also asserted Trump’s commitment to forthrightly pursuing the interests of Americans on the world stage.
“While America will pursue cooperation and commerce with other nations, we are renewing our commitment to the first duty of every government: the duty of our citizens. This bond is the source of America's strength and that of every responsible nation represented here today.”