President Trump's speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday was something of a James Bond martini for those in attendance and watching. It left them "shaken, not stirred." The speech focused on the UN's failings and had many of the trappings of one of his rally speeches in hammering Joe Biden's failures and accentuating his accomplishments. My colleague, Bonchie, covered the speech in Watch: Trump Throws Caution to the Wind, Lets It Rip at the UN General Assembly With Hilarious Results.
While CNN devoted itself to one of the embarrassing, self-beclowning fact checks that it specializes in:
About blowing up boats in the Caribbean
TRUMP: We’ve recently begun using the supreme power of the United States military to destroy Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks led by Nicolás Maduro. To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence. That’s what we’re doing. We have no choice.
There’s a very real question about whether Trump should be asking Congress for authority to make these strikes and whether they violate international law.
The BBC focused on something more important.
So this was undiluted Trump - a defence of America and the nation state, an assault on multilateralism and globalism, a stream of consciousness with questionable assertions.
Seven years ago, Trump's audience at the UN laughed at his at times non-factual assertions; this year they listened largely in silence.
"I am really good at this stuff," he told world leaders. "Your countries are going to hell."
Trump is not interested in the approval of anyone in the UN, and no one thinks laughing at him is going to dissuade him from his America First philosophy. MSNBC claims the speech was "mortifying" for the U.S., but the silence in the room indicated that more intelligent people than those on the MSNBC payroll knew better.
Tuesday's speech at the UN was not aimed at the diplomats in the room or those watching remotely. It wasn't aimed at the leaders of governments. It really wasn't even aimed at the world. It was, in my opinion, aimed directly at populist movements gaining momentum in Northern and Eastern Europe. The goal was to put Trump and his successor at the helm of an international movement to "Make Western Civilization Great Again."
Let's take a look at the themes.
I can stop wars.
There is Sharia law in London, and London has a terrible mayor (Sir Sadiq Khan).
"Renewables" are no substitute for oil and gas, and you have higher prices in Europe because of this grift: "You're supposed to make money with energy, not lose money. You lose money, the governments have to subsidize. You can't put them out without massive subsidies. And most of them are built in China, and I give China a lot of credit. They build them, but they have very few wind farms. So why is it that they build them and they send them all over the world, but they barely use them? You know what? They use coal, they use gas, they use almost anything, but they don't like wind, but they sure as hell like selling the windmills."
Global warming is a scam that is costing Europe its prosperity while no one else cares: "Europe reduced its own carbon footprint by 37%. Think of that. Congratulations Europe. Great job. You cost yourself a lot of jobs, a lot of factories closed, but you reduced the carbon footprint by 37%. However, for all of that sacrifice and much more, it's been totally wiped out and then some by a global increase of 54%, much of it coming from China and other countries that are thriving around China, which now produces more CO2 than all the other developed nations in the world."
Immigration is destroying Europe: "I love Europe. I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer. You're doing it because you want to be nice, you want to be politically correct, and you're destroying your heritage."
There was no message to China, India, or the Third World. Instead, they were portrayed, accurately in my mind, as exploiting Europe's guilt to strip it of wealth and to dump excess, poorly educated, culturally unassimilable, and violent migrants on the working people of Europe.
In many ways, this was a Trump campaign speech aimed at a sort of international electorate composed of populist movements now hitting their stride in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and other European countries. What the people in the room thought about it was totally irrelevant; in fact, their disapproval could have given the speech more power as it hit Europe.
The message was clear. Your leaders have sold you out. If you don't act, your countries will be swamped by foreigners who don't share your culture. Without a reliable energy supply and slamming the door on Third World migration, Europe, as we know it, will cease to exist. Trump framed the situation of national leadership that has allowed the situation to develop, serving as a warning call to populations who are inattentive and being taken advantage of.
All in all, it suggests that Trump's retreat from the EU and NATO is more a rebuke of national elites than a withdrawal from the theater. He offered an outstretched hand to people trying to save their country, showed them what it takes to make the move, and seemed to offer leadership.
In short, this wasn't Trump simply calling out the UN. This was Trump launching a narrative of the UN and national elites working together to impoverish, if not outright replace, the native population of Europe. Whether the Euro man-in-the-street responds and Trump can show the necessary leadership remains to be seen, but the speech was nothing less than a call to arms for Western Civilization.
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