Trump admonishes the United Nations

Was there a plot against President Trump at the United Nations? Upon his arrival, the escalator apparently stopped working. Next his teleprompter failed. Small wonder that Trump was in less than a concessive mood as he delivered his speech denouncing the UN itself as a colossal failure. The result was the kind of talk he would give to a political rally – except it was to an unreceptive, if not hostile, audience.

Throughout, Trump made it clear that his estimation of his abilities is very different from his view of the UN. “I’m really good at this stuff,” he declared. “I’ve been right about everything.” As for everyone else: “Your countries are going to hell.”

Presumably his dire verdict does not apply to close allies such as Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, who is depleting the country’s financial reserves to prop up the peso. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has vowed to lend Argentina up to $30 billion, presumably in the hopes of shoring up Milei’s political fortunes on the eve of midterm legislative elections on October 26. Milei, like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, is a favored son.

When it came to Europe, Trump had nothing but scorn. “We have an ocean in between. Europe has to step it up. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia.” True enough. But Europe has been stepping it up. The suspicion in Europe that Trump will concoct excuse after excuse to avoid fracturing his bromance with Russian president Vladimir Putin is not an unjustified one.

After vowing to reassess the relationship should Putin remain refractory after the Alaska summit meeting in mid-August, Trump has done nothing to up the pressure on Russia. Instead, he has watched passively as Moscow bombards Ukraine and sends drones and fighter jets into NATO’s eastern flank. When all the world is a hopeless jumble, Trump wants to pretend that somewhere over the rainbow the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

Indeed, as he hectored the assembled heads of state, bellowing about his own greatness, Trump’s aim wasn’t to dwell on conflict but to portray himself as the true peacemaker. He, not the UN, is creating a new pacific era – a golden age, if you will. According to Trump, “I ended seven wars and in all cases they were raging with countless of thousands of people being killed.” The claim that he, and he alone, terminated the conflict between Pakistan and India is likely to further sour relations with President Narendra Modi, whom Trump has steadily driven into the arms of a receptive China.

By the end of his speech, Trump struck a friendlier tone. His teleprompter, after all, had begun to function again. “Let us all work together to build a bright, beautiful planet,” Trump said, “a planet that we all share, a planet of peace in a world that is richer, better, and more beautiful than ever before. That can happen. It will happen.”

Hmm. For all the enmity his earlier rebarbative remarks may have created, they at least had the virtue of reflecting Trump’s true convictions. As always, Trump is least persuasive, or least believable, when he adopts the saccharine language of more conventional politicians. The more credible Trump at the UN was the one who warned drug cartels that he would “blow you out of existence.” Yeah, baby!