United States President Donald Trump’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday covered several things – his harshest statement on North Korea yet, his America First agenda, and even communism.
Trump started off saying the success of the world body depended on the independent strength of its members. “As president of the United States”, he will always put America first, Trump said, before saying louder that that’s what all countries should do.
Fourteen minutes into his speech, Trump attacked North Korea and said the UN member states must work together to confront “rogue regimes”. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for him and his regime,” Trump said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said. However, he added that though the United States is ready, willing, and able, it will hopefully not be necessary.
“If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” he said. Trump spoke about the death of American student Otto Warmbier after being detained by the North Korean government, and said the “entire world” is threatened by the nuclear threat in North Korea.
He also said that “terrorists and extremists have spread to every region of the planet”. Moving on to Iran, Trump said the country’s government was an “economically depleted rogue state” whose chief export is violence. On the refugee crises across the globe, Trump said the US supported resettling refugees as close to their home nations as possible.
At a UN meeting on Monday, Trump said the world body was not living up to its potential. At the special meeting on reform held at the UN headquarters in New York, Trump asked the 193-nation organisation to “focus more on people, less on bureaucracy.” During his address on Tuesday, the president said the US was bearing an unfair cost burden for funding the United Nations.
Trump, who came to power promoting an “America First” agenda, spoke of the importance of patriotism, and again emphasised that countries can only resolve global conflict if they protected themselves and their interests first.
He ended his nearly 42-minute speech saying, “God bless you, god bless the nations of the world, and god bless the United states of America”.
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