What a difference a year makes.
Last September, President Donald Trump used the opportunity of his annual address to the United Nations, to the shock and horror of many, to lob insults at North Korea’s Kim Jong-un: “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime… No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles… The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
On Tuesday morning, back at the U.N., Trump praised the North Korean leader and bragged about taking steps toward peace with the bellicose regime, while reaffirming his administration’s commitment to keeping economic pressure unless and until Kim agrees to full denuclearization.
“With the support of many leaders here today, we have engaged with North Korea to replace the specter of conflict with a bold and new push for peace,” Trump said. “I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done. The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs.”
Indeed, the absence of bombshells like last year’s made Trump’s speech this time almost boring by comparison. The president himself seemed to think so, if the way he sleepwalked through his prepared remarks was any indication. He offered the usual “America First” paeans and threw the usual punches—against globalism, against the International Criminal Court, against China’s unfair trade practices, against Iranian saber-rattling, against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries—but his droning monotone made it seem his heart wasn’t really in it. He’s President Chaos, and President Chaos is expected to say these things—but it’s got to be more fun to say them to cheering crowds of supporters than to a tittering room of the world’s diplomats.
