Trump’s Nontraditional UN Address and his Stance Against Rogue Regimes

Leaders from around the globe assembled on September 19^th for the United Nation’s General Assembly. President Donald Trump presented early in the day, offering a speech that rapidly diverged from traditional U.N. talking points.

Trump began by acknowledging the need for the nations of the world to come together peacefully to work towards common goals, before pivoting to emphasis the importance of upholding American sovereignty and encouraging other nations to do likewise. Trump also emphasized the need for reforming the institutional practices of the UN, directly and aggressively addressed rogue regimes including North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Minutes before Trump’s speech UN Secretary General Antionio Guterres appealed for statesmanship stating, “we must not sleepwalk our way into war.”

President Trump focused a substantial amount of time discussing North Korea, warning that the entire world is threatened by their continued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development. He said, “If it [the US] forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

He then called out North Korea’s trading partners, stating that no decent nation should be trading with North Korea.

North Korea under Kim Jong Un has metastasized into a serious global threat. After their sixth nuclear test on September 3^rd, triggering a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, this nuclear  test was the most powerful weapon Pyongyang has ever tested. North Korea has conducted 15 other long and short range missile tests this year, despite UN sanctions.

After condemning North Korea, President Trump pivoted toward addressing Iran stating that it is a “destabilizing influence” for the Middle East. He stated that the nuclear deal was an embarrassment to the United States and one of the worst nonproliferation agreements that the United States has been involved in. Trump directly addressed Iran’s role as a state sponsor of terrorism, and said the nuclear deal should be abandoned by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the European Union.

As Trump addressed Iran his focus was on the nuclear deal. The deal  requires the State Department to certify to Congress every 90 days that Iran is still complying with the agreement under the terms ironed out by the Obama administration in 2015. However, one of Trump’s campaign promises was to end the nuclear agreement. Here he faces opposing pressures from both this loyal support base who want to see the deal decertified and his advisors such as his national security advisor General H.R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who appear to oppose decertification.

Trump is still weighing his next moves toward Iran, and faces a mid-October deadline for re-certifying Iran’s compliance with the agreement.

Towards the end of his speech President Trump called out both Cuba and Venezuela, speaking out against the harsh socialist regimes. The Trump administration has not lifted sanctions on the Cuban government, and Trump said they will not do so until Cuba makes fundamental reforms,  although he did not say exactly what reforms would be required.

Cuba made for a nice transition into discussing the economic crisis occurring in Venezuela.  President Trump called out the socialist Maduro regime, for causing Venezuela’s economic collapse, and accused the Venezuelan government of allowing a once prosperous nation to suffer. He also thanked the other world leaders for providing support to Venezuela as well as saying the U.S. will take further action if the government continues on this path.

In Venezuela, a study published earlier this year reported that roughly 75% of Venezuelans lost an average of 19 pounds due to food shortages. On July16^th the results of a popular consultation     certified the illegitimacy of the government of Nicolas Maduro, and the opposition continued with popular demonstrations against the regime. As the demonstrations from the opposition persist, the international community must impose harsher economic sanction to pressure the regime, similar to Cuba, rather than take military action. Since April more than 5,000  individuals have been detained by the government, and as of July 31^st 124 deaths were linked to the demonstrations.

President Trump has said the America possess a military option to prevent a destabilized Venezuela, although its unclear what such an operation would look like. Any military option is opposed by the Colombian and Brazilian governments, who the U.S. have maintained close military cooperation.

Some areas which President Trump declined to address were the situation in Myanmar, his efforts towards reestablishing an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, or the American withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. However, President Trump will be having several individual meetings during the rest of the week with several national leaders, where these issues are sure to come up.

Trump’s speech appears to have played well to his political base, and less so to fellow United Nations General Assembly attendees.

The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák, after President Trump’s speech said that that many people have become disillusioned with the U.N. in a world grappling with conflict, poverty, terrorism and global warming, but acknowledged the U.N.’s potential to help.  He also stated that U.N. needs to put more emphasis on warding off conflicts, rather than reacting to them.

French President Macron defended the Iran Deal, saying there was no alternative, while British Prime Minister Theresa May called the deal “vitally important.”  These nations along with the EU and UN has urged the U.S. to not scrap the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which eased international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.

With his first United Nations address under his belt, President Trump called out the major players in conflict and emphasized that the United States and the members of the United Nations should not tolerate the security, economic, and humanitarian violations that rogue governments impose on the world today.  Trump also seemed to clarify that while the world looks to the United States for direction on addressing international security concerns, his first responsibility was to American interests and security.