Trump at the UN

Post Trump's assertions, the most stark, urgent and unavoidable question was how the world would operate in the absence of a reliable American leadership.

- 

This is not only a question for the global south but for Europe as well, because it confronts Russia, Asia, as it wrestles with Chinese power and for the Gulf, as it grapples with Israel's military dominance

President Donald Trump’s address to the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly on 23 September can be seen in starkly different lights: for supporters, it was Trumpism in its purest form: for critics, it was Trumpism unplugged.

Regardless of perspective, Trump's speech stood out as one of the clearest, rawest and most unabashed expositions of his worldview and ideology.

Angered by a broken escalator and a teleprompter that disrupted his visit and speech, President Trump attacked the United Nations, questioning its effectiveness in resolving conflicts and pointing to the gridlock in the Security Council.

“The UN has such tremendous potential but it is not even coming close to living up to that potential.” Its strongly worded letters represented empty words that do not end wars, he insisted. The UN is supposed to stop invasion, not create them and not finance them, he asserted.

His critics, however, hold Trump to be both the cause and the symptom for the UN’ ineffectiveness. This is because Trump clearly believes global crises are best resolved by powerful men and countries sitting together and hammering out deals without any reference to the UN for working out collective solutions.