Trump pushes ‘America First’ in UN speech
UNITED NATIONS — President Trump poured scorn on the “ideology of globalism” and heaped praise on his own administration’s achievements yesterday in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that drew head shakes and even mocking laughter from his audience of fellow world leaders.
“The U.S. will not tell you how to live and work or worship,” Trump said as he unapologetically promoted his “America First” agenda. “We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.”
Speaking in triumphal terms, Trump approached his address to the world body as something of an annual report to the world on his country’s progress since his inauguration. He showcased strong economic numbers, declared that the U.S. military is “more powerful than it has ever been before” and crowed that in “less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”
Just sentences into the president’s remarks, the audience began to chuckle and some leaders broke into outright laughter, suggesting the onetime reality television star’s puffery is as familiar abroad as it is at home. Trump appeared briefly flustered, then smiled and said it was not the reaction he expected “but that’s all right.”
“We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues,” said Trump. The president has removed the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, citing the country’s destabilizing actions throughout the region and support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah, and he accused its leaders yesterday of sowing “chaos, death and destruction.”
His national security adviser, John Bolton, was to go even further in a speech yesterday, issuing a dire warning to Iran: “If you cross us, our allies or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay,” Bolton said, according to prepared remarks released by the White House.
In addition to his keynote speech, Trump is to chair a meeting of the U.N. Security Council about nuclear proliferation today. His four days of choreographed foreign affairs were designed to stand in contrast to a presidency sometimes defined by disorder.