The Reaction to Trump’s Speech at the U.N. Was Revealing
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Over the past year, Donald Trump’s actions on the world stage have ushered in a new era, in which most of the world’s leaders realize they no longer need to pretend to respect the president of the United States. Their reception of his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday made clear that this era has firmly taken hold.
His 38-minute address was interrupted just four times for mild applause—when he said that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, that all of Israel’s hostages had been freed from Gaza, and that no international bureaucracy will pass a tax (as if this would have a chance of happening), and to thank his wife, Melania, for heading a group that recovered Ukrainian children who had been kidnapped by Russia.
Otherwise, crickets, and deservedly so.
His previous U.N. speeches have been jammed with bluster and bunkum, but none more so than this one. He began with boasts that seemed meant for a domestic audience—and that were clearly false to everyone in the room.
“Our country is stronger today than ever before”—this, as the U.S. military is failing to subdue Iran, a third-rate power, despite firing bombs and missiles at more than 15,000 targets. “Our economy is the envy of the world”—this, as the rest of the world maneuvers to withdraw assets from U.S. markets and seek alternative supply chains. “The entire world is being lifted by the wealth, strength, spirit, and momentum of a newly energized and very powerful United States of America”—when, in fact, the world is suffering from an energy crisis created by Trump’s unnecessary war, which has moreover revealed weaknesses in our military arsenal.
Trump also said, “We inherited a dark age of America from the previous administration, and we turned it into the golden age of America”—a claim that no president should have to make if it were true, and that anyone looking at any data would know is not true.
The speech was strewn with falsehoods that must have appalled even sympathetic listeners in the chamber.
Of Iran: “They were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more.” Tell that to shippers who still refuse to send their cargo into the Strait of Hormuz. Or to the Saudis, whose gateway for oil exports—and........
