Trump at the UN

Post Trump’sassertions, the morestark, urgentand unavoidable questionwas how theworld would operateinthe absence ofareliable American leadership. Thisisnotonlya question fortheglobalsouth but for Europeaswell, becauseit confronts Russia, Asia, asit wrestles with Chinese powerand forthe Gulf asitgrappleswith Israel’s military dominance

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President Donald Trump’s address tothe 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.