President Donald Trump this morning embarrassed himself and the United States with an arrogant rant at the United Nations that all but asserted the sole power of the U.S. president to decide which nations are naughty and which are nice, which will be bombed or otherwise attacked and which governments need to be overthrown.
In a world body that is based on diplomacy and collective action, Trump threatened military action and unilateralism if necessary.
Although he threw an occasional bone of insincere respect for what the United Nations stands for, he basically told his allies to follow his lead or stay out of his way, and told those in the world who disobey him that he has the power to enforce his will.
I don’t care as much as some will that he defied all protocol by referring to the leader of another nation (Kim Jong Un of North Korea) as “Rocket Man.” But to announce to the world body that if Kim doesn’t do as told by the POTUS in the nuclear missile department “we will have no choice but to totally destroy” North Korea.
He called Iran “another reckless regime” and pretty much pledged to pull out of the deal, negotiated with many nations, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He seemed to threaten to substitute military action for diplomacy, if necessary.
“Regime,” by the way, if you’ve never noticed, if the code word we Americans use to delegitimize other governments. Trump also denounced the Cuban “regime” and the “Maduro regime” in Venezuela and other unnamed “rogue regimes” — which is little more than a traditional display of U.S. arrogance in declaring which governments of the world it disrespects.
The United States has led the world since at least the end of World War II in bombing or invading other countries or using covert means to overthrow their governments (but only the governments that are “regimes”).
