Trump to the World: Do as I Say

The United Nations is supposed to be an international forum for consultation, collaboration and compromise. President Donald Trump, though, has a different kind of message for its 190-plus member states: Just do what I tell you.

Migration? Close your borders.

The climate crisis? Forget about it.

Russian oil? Stop buying it.

The American leader issued these strongly worded suggestions — sometimes they felt like orders — Tuesday in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual summit — the first such address of his second term. He didn’t mince words.

“I’m really good at this stuff,” he said at one point. “Your countries are going to hell.”

America, on the other hand, is “the hottest country anywhere in the world, and there is no other country even close,” he said, in what was not a climate change reference.

It didn’t land well.

One Latin American official, whom, like others watching, I granted anonymity so they could be candid, tried to put it kindly. “It was the guy who runs the most successful company telling other CEOs what they should do to make their companies more successful,” the official told me. “But it was not ‘I’m going to create a new international framework to promote this for the benefit of everybody.’ It was more like, ‘It’s up to you.’”

I’ve listened to every speech Trump has given to the U.N. General Assembly. This was the wildest one yet. It also may have been a missed opportunity for the U.S. president to harness the U.N. for his own ends.

Trump rambled to an extraordinary degree, even after the broken teleprompter was fixed. He spouted an astonishing number of falsehoods — yes, even for him — such as suggesting that London was moving toward adopting Islamic law. He contradicted himself, claiming, for instance, that carbon footprints don’t matter while also bemoaning air pollution in some regions.

Trump had a few lines that sounded more like the expected address of a U.S. president to the world body. He announced that his administration will lead an initiative to try to reduce the existence of biological weapons, and he called on “every nation to join us.”

But that was an exception. Overall, Trump offered no overarching, unifying global vision (his administration had promised a clear, articulate philosophy on the world).

Trump had few kind words to entice countries to follow America’s lead in tackling problems that cross borders. Instead, he stuck to his nationalist core, bullying, prodding and ridiculing the assembled countries.

The U.S. president, who looked relaxed and as if he was having a genuinely good time, also used the moment to poke fun at the United Nations’ dysfunction, and it wasn’t just about a malfunctioning escalator.

“All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war,” he said.

I am about as cynical as it gets when it comes to the United Nations, but Trump’s assertions evinced a misunderstanding of the world body.

It is a forum, a venue, for member states to solve problems. And when its leading members — namely the United States, Russia and China — cannot overcome their differences, the U.N. serves little purpose.

If Trump wants the U.N. to function better, he can help make it happen. Instead, he not only acts as if the U.S. has no role, he has taken steps, including holding back funds, that arguably further weaken the multilateral institution.

Some foreign officials described Trump’s speech on Tuesday as uninformed at best and counterproductive at worst.

“He tells things which are not true,” one European official complained to me by text. (No, this person is not new in the job.)

The official argued, for instance, that Trump acted as if Europe has done nothing to restrain Russia against Ukraine when it has imposed heavy sanctions on the Kremlin, reduced its reliance on Russian energy and spent billions shoring up Kyiv.

And while several European countries also have cracked down on migration, Trump made it sound as if the continent was overrun by outside “invaders” and urged the countries to protect their “heritage.”

“In Switzerland, beautiful Switzerland, 72 percent of the people in prisons are from outside of Switzerland,” Trump said in one aside, referring to a figure that is more complex than he’s letting on.

Trump’s address also highlighted his domestic focus. At times, Trump sounded as if he was at one of his campaign rallies. He harped so much on his domestic achievements that my audio transcription app automatically saved his speech under the title “State of the Nation Address.”

I did not get the sense Trump’s words would lead any of his fellow heads of state to change their mind about fundamental issues such as the science of climate change. Perhaps he would be more persuasive on other fronts if he were to state more clearly that he understands that other countries do not always define their interests as being the same as America’s.

The Latin American official said the speech in many ways confirms the sense in diplomatic circles that Trump’s approach to the world will continue to be “vibes rather than facts.”

Those vibes, of course, can change within a minute, within an hour, within a single speech.

After all, the same Trump who said the countries assembled before him were “going to hell” wrapped up his speech by declaring: “Every leader in this beautiful hall today represents a rich culture, a noble history and a proud heritage that makes each nation majestic and unique, unlike anything else in human history or any other place on face of the earth.”

Some foreign officials told me that, although they were not entirely surprised by Trump’s speech, their concern about where the United States, and the world, is headed for the next three years is only more acute now.

“The world will take it, because the world has no choice,” the European official said.

But your countries have to protect yourselves, right? I asked.

“Yes,” the official replied. “By not picking the fight.”