Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday to the United Nations general assembly was an object lesson in his lawless rule and remarkable capacity for self-delusion. Disregarding the UN charter’s emphasis on the peaceful resolution of disputes, he doubled down on his violent unilateralism while denigrating the global issues that the UN is designed to address.
For many, the headline remark was his musing about whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” of Iran. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
But it was probably less a genuine threat than a clumsy effort to influence negotiations where he has little leverage. Trump is in desperate quest of some face-saving gesture that will allow him to feign “victory” and extract himself from his disastrous war of choice.
He spoke of destroying the “Islamic Republic”, which might imply the Iranian military, a legitimate military target. But his reference to precluding future generations suggests he meant to threaten the Iranian people. Attacking them would be a blatant war crime.
In July, he already vowed to destroy Iran’s bridges or power plants – itself a threat to commit war crimes. The international criminal court (ICC) has charged four Russian military commanders for doing precisely that in Ukraine.
Trump didn’t even bother to offer a coherent rationale for his threat. Once more, he proclaimed: “I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” But Tehran has long disavowed that goal.
He claimed that other American presidents “just wanted to ignore” the issue. But Barack Obama negotiated a deal to constrain Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon. Trump ripped it up, preferring his utterly counterproductive military solution, which has brought Iran far closer to a nuclear weapon than ever before.
Preposterously, Trump claimed, “when it comes to Iran,” the midterm election “doesn’t even enter my mind.” No one believes that. If the Republicans face the disastrous showing that the polls now predict, he knows the election will be seen as a repudiation of his arbitrary tariffs and Iran war which have fueled inflation and aggravated the affordability crisis that he belittles.
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Trump also spotlighted his other acts of aggression. He celebrated the seizure of Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro, emphasizing how some political prisoners have now been freed, although hundreds remain. But while Trump lauded his coerced deal with Venezuela’s remaining autocratic leaders to take a large chunk of the country’s oil, he said nothing about a democratic future. Instead, touting his might-makes-right beliefs, he proclaimed: “To the victor belong the spoils.”
He noted the new agreement on Greenland without mentioning his earlier threat to seize the territory by force even though it has long been administered by Denmark, a fellow Nato member.
He raved about slaughtering drug suspects at sea, claiming they are “at war with civilization” and “should be killed … as enemy combatants”. But there is no real war, only a rhetorical one.
Drug traffickers form a criminal cartel, not an organized force in armed conflict with the United States. They should be arrested and prosecuted, not summarily executed by drone. The killings are murders and arguably crimes against humanity.
Many of the victims were on boats registered in Columbia or Venezuela – both at the time members of the ICC. That would give the court jurisdiction over these crimes, which may be why Trump reprised his attack on this important institution of justice. Trump wants to be restrained only by his own warped “morality”.
It has been reported that Trump may soon supplement his sanctions against 13 ICC personnel – judges and prosecutors – with sanctions against the court as a whole. But that would only compound the criminality of his conduct, because retaliation against court personnel for the performance of their official duties is obstructing justice under article 70 of the court’s statute.
Trump emphasized his role as a peacemaker. “I have made peace,” he declared, as he claimed to have “settle[d] eight wars”. Yet the reality is more complicated.
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He said he had “ended the war in Gaza”. In fact, despite the “ceasefire”, Israel’s continuing attacks continue to raise the death toll. Trump mentioned his 20-point peace plan for Gaza without noting that virtually none of it has been implemented. Israel continues to kill Palestinians and block needed supplies, while Hamas has not disarmed. He didn’t even bother to mouth the word “Palestinian”.
Indeed, the Trump administration has rejected a leading candidate for the next UN secretary general because she has publicly recognized that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, suggesting that Trump will accept only future UN leaders who are willing to deny this reality.
He claimed to have “contribute[d] to peace” between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, without noting that Rwanda’s M23 militia continues to occupy large swathes of eastern DRC. Trump seems fine with that, so long as the murderous M23 brings the region’s mineral riches to the western market.
He claimed to be making progress in securing peace in Ukraine, without acknowledging his prior suggestion to reward Vladimir Putin’s aggression by having Ukraine not only cede territory already illegally occupied by Russia but to hand over additional chunks of its territory as well.
Meanwhile, Trump belittled the problems that the UN, able to convene the world’s nations, is ideally suited to address. He called the existential threat of climate change a “hoax”. Ignoring the enormous risks posed by artificial intelligence, he attempted to relabel AI as “superintelligence” and derided efforts to regulate it as “globalist.”
This week Trump meets with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Yet rather than outline the important issues to be addressed, Trump chose to self-promote: “We’re leading now over China by a lot”.
Most would say only that Trump is leading in national embarrassment. It is sad and dangerous that at such a perilous moment, the United States is saddled with a president who excels mainly in disseminating self-promoting fantasies while flouting the most basic rules of decency. His UN speech put that all on painful display.
