“We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy,” President Trump told United Nations officials Tuesday. His comment was a specific rejection of the authority of the International Criminal Court, but it could have applied to other matters as well. For example, the president also justified withdrawing the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council on the grounds that it had become a sham, an enabler of human rights abuses in desperate need of reform.

“America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination,” Trump said, offering American friendship as an alternative to the hegemony that Russia and China are trying to impose worldwide. “I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.”