Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Political James
- Author’s title, BBC News Diplomatic Correspondent
Donald Trump‘s speech this Tuesday before the United Nations General Assembly was one of the clearest exhibitions of his worldview and his ideology in his purest form.
For his followers, he will look like Trumpism without Tapujos; For his critics, such as deranged Trumpism.
For almost an hour, he pointed against his opponents and his ideas, eliminating them one by one while traveling the world. He started at home, praising the United States and himself.
He said that the United States was living a golden age and repeated his controversial statement that he had personally put an end to seven wars, something that, according to him, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
But then he lashed out at his hosts. The UN, he said, had not helped his pacification work. He questioned the purpose of the organization, saying that it had enormous potential, but that it was not up to it. According to him, all he did was write energetic letters that he did not follow up. The empty words, he said, did not end wars.
He also attacked the UN for the aid provided to asylum seekers who expected to enter the United States: “The UN is supposed to stop the invasions, not create or finance them,” he said. He even criticized the organism for a mechanical staircase and a teleprompter that interrupted his visit and his speech.
In a way, he is right. Many analysts question the ES effectiveness to resolve conflicts today, pointing out in particular the stagnation of the Security Council and the bureaucracy of the agency.
But, in another sense, it can be considered that Trump himself is a cause and a symptom of the UN lack of effectiveness, since he believes that world crises are better resolved when powerful men like him meet and reach an agreement, instead of resorting to multilateral organisms such as the UN to find collective solutions.
Under Trump’s mandate, the United States has withdrawn much of its UN financing, which has forced the agency to cut its humanitarian work throughout the world.
Image source, EPA
The offensive about Europe
Trump reserved his greatest criticism for his European allies, attacking the continent for investing in renewable energy and opening its borders to migration.
“Europe is in serious problems. It has been invaded by an illegal immigrants force as never seen before … both immigration and suicidal ideas about energy will be the death of Western Europe,” he said.
Climate change, he said among audible exclamations, was “the greatest scam ever perpetrated in the world.” He said he was carrying European countries with high energy costs compared to fossil fuels. He criticized in particular the United Kingdom government for imposing new taxes on oil from the North Sea.
“If they don’t move away from the green energy scam, their country will fail,” he said.
“I love Europe. I love Europeans. And I hate how energy and immigration are devastating it. This two -headed monster destroys everything in their path … They want to be politically correct and are destroying their heritage.”
It is worth noting this last point, which echoes what the president said during his state visit to the United Kingdom last week, when he spoke of the importance of defending the values of what he called “the English -speaking world.”
There is a cultural nuance in Trump’s criticism to Europe, a feeling that he believes that uncontrolled immigration is threatening European heritage. Not in vain Trump is the leader of a government that shows his religion with pride.
“We protect religious freedom,” he said in his speech, “including the most persecuted religion of the planet today: Christianity.”
Image source, Getty Images
The war in Ukraine
As for a concrete political issue, Trump’s clearest warning referred to Russia’s War against Ukraine.
He said that the refusal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict “was not giving a good image of Russia.” He affirmed that the United States was willing to “impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs” to end blood.
But he said that European nations had to stop buying Russian energy, claiming that only two weeks ago he had learned that some were doing it.
In practice, Hungary and Slovakia are the only important European buyers of Russian oil. Diplomats claim that Trump hides behind this so as not to have to impose secondary sanctions to India and China, who are buying huge amounts of cheap Russian energy, and those Trump mentioned.
Perhaps more important than his speech was Trump’s publication on social networks shortly after, in which he stated for the first time that Ukraine could be able to recover his entire territory.
His disqualification to Russia, describing the country as a “paper tiger” and not as a “real military power”, will hurt President Putin, which is sensitive to any suggestion that his country is not a global actor. The diplomats said this was the last example of Trump’s path to a more critical position with Russia.
Image source, EPA
Silence in the room
But you always have to take Trump’s words with caution. He was optimistic only a few moments after meeting with the Ukrainian president at the UN Headquarters.
And he said that Ukraine could recover territory with the support of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); He did not mention the participation of the United States.
All tests of recent years indicate that it is a war of slow wear and that Ukraine would not recover Russian territory without massive military support from the United States.
So this was Trump in its purest form: a defense from the United States and the state-state, an attack on multilateralism and globalism, a torrent of consciousness with questionable statements.
Six years ago, Trump’s public at the UN laughed at his statements, sometimes not very objective; This year, they listened largely in silence.
“I am very good in this,” he told world leaders. “Their countries are going to hell.”
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