Trump Delivers Annual Speech in U.N. Debate

As his contribution to the United Nations’ annual “General Debate”, President Donald Trump laid out America’s international priorities, as well as his view of the international organization.

Speaking from the General Assembly’s rostrum at this 74th

annual session, President Trump spoke of the “seven decades of history” that had been made here. He noted that the U.S. has spent 2.5 trillion dollars since his election to rebuild its military, and is now the “world’s most powerful nation”.

In a theme that has already begun to echo from his words, Trump said that “The future does not belong to globalists; the future belongs to patriots”. In that regard, the President spoke of America’s recent trade agreements, and told of meetings—held or planned—with Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe of Japan, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, and others. He spoke critically of China’s actions, and especially of reforms promised but never enacted. The U.S., he said, has “lost 60,000 factories since China entered the W.T.O.”(World Trade Organization).

Turning to Iran, Trump said that it was fueling wars in both Yemen and Syria, and “squandering its nation’s wealth” to seek nuclear weapons. And he told how Iran’s Supreme Leader called Israel “a malignant cancerous tumor…that has to be eradicated”. Likewise, he said that North Korea has “tremendous potential”, if it were to denuclearize.

In a statement that seemed torn from his domestic agenda,

the President spoke of the unfairness of mass migrations, for both “sending and depleted countries”. And the net result is that “human capital goes to waste”. He noted that the U.S. is working with its American neighbors: Mexico, Canada, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama. And he railed against smugglers and human traffickers.

Trump lastly mentioned Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom he bluntly described as a ”Cuban puppet”. Cuba, he said, was “plundering” Venezuela’s oil wealth, for it’s own political purposes.

In summary, the speech was said to be largely similar to those delivered to Trump’s domestic audiences. But how will such “domestic-like” speeches truly play on the wider world stage?