Vernuccio’s View: Trump Charts New Course at U.N.

Trump: “As President of the United States of America, I will ALWAYS put #AmericaFirst 🇺🇸 #UNGA” [Twitter] WH.Gov

President Trump’s  address to the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly on September 19 was the most substantive and direct in a generation.

He repudiated the global inclination to place international bureaucracies over national governments, and the use of vague and opaque diplomatic language that obscures problems and inhibits the clarity needed to produce successful results. The President explicitly pointed out the U.N.’s failure to solve problems.  He expressed his belief that the United States paid an inordinately high share of the international organization’s expenses but did not explicitly threaten to withdraw funding, noting:

“The United States bears an unfair cost burden, but… if it could actually accomplish all of its stated goals, especially the goal of peace, this investment would easily be well worth it.”

The President spoke bluntly about key international disputes, calling on the international body to “reject threats to sovereignty, from the Ukraine to the South China Sea. We must uphold respect for law, respect for borders, and respect for culture, and the peaceful engagement these allow. …we must work together and confront together those who threaten us with chaos, turmoil, and terror.”

The President specifically warned North Korea: “The United States…if… forced to defend itself or its allies…will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea…hopefully this will not be necessary. That’s what the United Nations is all about; that’s what the United Nations is for… It is time for North Korea to realize that the denuclearization is its only acceptable future.” Mr. Trump emphasized the need by all nations to cease trade with Kim’s regime.

Incredible speech by @POTUS at #UNGA today. #USAatUNGA https://t.co/pt5OOv3xP4 pic.twitter.com/ejwRucGy5X

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) September 19, 2017

The President also singled out Iran, and the nuclear deal that has received extensive criticism from the current White House. Mr. Trump described the key flaw: the permission granted to Iran, a nation which vigorously supports terrorism and oppressive regimes, to develop nuclear weapons in the near future.

The President emphasized that the uncontrolled mass migrations that have characterized the past decades have been “deeply unfair to both the sending and the receiving countries… For the sending countries, it reduces domestic pressure to pursue needed political and economic reform, and drains them of the human capital necessary to motivate and implement those reforms. For the receiving countries, the substantial costs of uncontrolled migration are borne overwhelmingly by low-income citizens…” He pointed out that for the cost of one refugee brought to the U.S., ten could be resettled within their own home region.

Mr. Trump described the problems brought about by large international trade deals. “For too long, the American people were told that mammoth multinational trade deals, unaccountable international tribunals, and powerful global bureaucracies were the best way to promote their success…millions of jobs vanished and thousands of factories disappeared…our great middle class… was forgotten and left behind…”

As President of the United States of America, I will ALWAYS put #AmericaFirst🇺🇸#UNGA
Full remarks: https://t.co/ksaMsQ2Lhm pic.twitter.com/XrtpAWwuCn

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2017

The President called attention to the harsh repression of the Castro regime. “My administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms.”

The President criticized the Maduro regime in Venezuela, emphasizing America’s tough sanctions on that nation: “The socialist dictatorship …has inflicted terrible pain and suffering …This corrupt regime destroyed a prosperous nation by imposing a failed ideology that has produced poverty and misery everywhere it has been tried. To make matters worse, Maduro has defied his own people, stealing power from their elected representatives to preserve his disastrous rule. The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing.”

Mr. Trump directly confronted the failed ideology of socialism which the U.N. has not condemned, despite the ravages, both intended and unintended, of that concept: “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented… America stands with every person living under a brutal regime.”

See President Trump’s full remarks: http://45.wh.gov/wkGxNw

Frank Vernuccio serves as editor-in-chief of the New York Analysis of Policy & Government.