On Tuesday, addressing the United Nations for the first time as president, President Trump delivered a powerful message.
On the peril, Trump was clear.
He spared no ire in confronting the efforts of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to acquire an intercontinental ballistic missile plus nuclear warhead capability. Trump warned that if the U.S. is “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” Referencing Kim specifically, Trump warned that “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for him and his regime.”
Trump pledged to continue destroying the Islamic State and said America and its allies would “crush” ISIS.
The president also offered a very tough tone on Iran, describing the nuclear deal with that nation as an “embarrassment,” and condemning the Iranian regime for its human rights abuses. But Trump’s anger wasn’t focused solely against adversaries that pose threats to American lives. As a case in point, Trump took a few minutes to launch a blistering strike on the “socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro” and the ideology of socialism as that which has fostered “poverty and misery everywhere it has been tried.”
This addition was positive in that it added a clear moral mission to Trump’s broader narrative.
Yet Trump also showed humility. He thanked Middle Eastern nations such as Jordan and Lebanon for supporting millions of Syrian refugees, he praised U.S. aid programs that promote women entrepreneurship, anti-disease, and anti-poverty efforts. And the president described the United Nations mission as “beautiful,” while noted that it needs reform.
Ultimately, this was a very fine speech; confident and eloquent, but measured and serious. In short, it was a message of American realism, fine-tuned for an era as Trump put it, “of both immense promise and great peril.”
