OPINION: Trump’s annual address to the UN General Assembly quickly turned from American greatness to American might and power – and his willingness to use it to get what he wants
Donald Trump gave an angry, brooding speech to the UN(Image: MICK TSIKAS/EPA/Shutterstock)
Donald Trump gave a dark, angry speech to the United Nations, seeking to rebrand AI as an American super weapon and bragging about the US committing a string of apparent war crimes.
The embattled President opened his address to the UN’s General Assembly by bragging about his perceived achievements.
But the address quickly turned from American greatness to American might and power – and his willingness to use it to get what he wants.
“While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace,” he claimed, implausibly.
“While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them. While others have talked of courage. America has shown it. While others have promised strength, I have used it to make America the most powerful country in the world.”
In a lengthy section about Iran, Trump said he needed to decide whether to make a deal – or “annihilate the Islamic Republic.”
He mused about whether he should “drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations”, which would be a war crime.
He went on to boast about how America is extracting millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela after America’s invasion of the country in January – which he’s now calling a war. He even declared “to the victor belong the spoils” as he bragged about pillaging the state – which is also a war crime.
He talked about how he’s going to plant two massive military bases on Greenland, which Denmark has signed up to despite many observers still warning that it could be a prelude to him annexing the island by force.
The delegation from Cuba walked out in protest when Trump bragged about his economic and energy embargo against the island, which only falls short of the war crime of “collective punishment” because America and Cuba are not techincally at war.
It probably didn’t help that he described Cuba as a “failed state” and a “haven” for America’s adversaries.
He declared America won’t be doing very much to regulate AI, despite increasing warnings that the technology could cause the destruction of the human race.
Instead, Trump sought to rebrand it “Super Intelligence” – and making the case for an AI arms race with China. Because if there’s a dangerous, destructive power in the world, Donald Trump wants to own it.
In a moment almost buried in the speech, Trump sought to engineer the collapse of the International Criminal Court, which he said was a “rogue organisation”, before urging all member states to resign from it.
One of the International Criminal Court’s primary functions is to prosecute people for war crimes.
Trump’s UN speech last year was the easily mockable rambling of a freewheeling elderly man hurling insults at his favourite targets for sport.
This year his approval rating is in the 20s. He’s seven months into America’s most disastrous war since Iraq – a war that is incredibly unpopular and making his voters poorer. And he’s staring down the barrel of a midterm election that is widely expected to be a bloodbath for the Republican Party. Trump is not in the mood for fun.
He’s banning journalists from the White House because they won’t write propaganda about him, bragging about the war crimes he’s got away with and threatening to commit a few new ones. And he’s doing so from the podium of the United Nations.
Forget acting like a dictator – if Marvel made a movie with a supervillain who did this, critics would say it was a bit on the nose.
