close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Trump at the UN

By our correspondents
September 21, 2017

US President Donald Trump’s dystopian vision was on full display at his first appearance before the UN General Assembly. In a paranoid rant, he echoed the worst tirades of his ultra-nationalist campaign and set the world on edge. At a time when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has already rattled the international community with his missile tests and blustering, Trump poured kerosene on the fire. He threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea – the first time a world leader has warned of removing not only a regime but obliterating an entire country. Trump’s darkest instincts combined with his puerility as he once again mocked Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man”. What Trump does not seem to realise is that North Korea has ramped up its own threats and missile tests because of his attitude. Trump’s war-mongering rhetoric has convinced Kim Jong-un that he has no option but to demonstrate the power of his nuclear deterrent to forestall US military action. After this UN speech, Iran will feel the same way too. He called the Iran nuclear deal – one of the few foreign policy achievements of his predecessor Barack Obama – an embarrassment to the US, and threatened to pull out. Combined with his condemnation of Iran as a rogue state, this could sound the death knell of an agreement that has kept the peace between the US and Iran.

As is typical of Trump, his speech was a mess of contradictions. His isolationist nature led him to tout the sovereignty of the nation-state even as his bullying style led him to threaten not just North Korea and Iran but also Venezuela for no other reason than its socialistic nature. The sovereignty pitch seemed to be aimed not at other countries but at the UN itself. On the campaign trail he had gone so far as to threaten to withdraw from the UN and his speech could be read as an attack on multilateral institutions. Trump has already backed out of the Paris climate agreement, making the US one of the only countries in the world not to be a part of it, and he is now looking to do the same with the Iran nuclear agreement, which had the strong backing of the UN and the European Union. Donald Trump is the logical end-point of US imperialism. Sovereignty is only available in practice to those powerful enough to uphold it while the rest of the world is there for the taking should the superpower desire it. This is the take-away from the American president’s dangerous UN speech.