Trump at the U.N.: Braggadocio, Mythology & Global Embarrassment on Steroids

Palestinian flag raised for the first time at the  United Nations NY headquarters in 2015.

  Wind power is everywhere in China

Trump at the U.N.: Braggadocio, Mythology & Global Embarrassment on Steroids

There was laughter at Donald Trump’s last speech before the U.N. General Assembly in 2019. No one could believe that Trump was anything but a fluke, a President mired in such scandal and oceans of right-wing falsehoods that he was at best a one-term mistake. There was international relief when he lost in 2020 and shock and dismay when a thoroughly disgraced Trump won in 2024. Let me summarize his September 23rd U.N. speech: me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me and me! But no one was laughing now. Instead, there was a pall over the crowd, a sickening acknowledgment that Trump’s vision, using the profound economic power the United States wields, was instilling fear and resignation among world leaders… the bully was not about to stop. There was a touch of smugness from the Chinese delegation, knowing that they were gaining traction with the rest of the world with every word Trump spoke.

As climate related disasters continued to escalate globally, particularly in the United States, Trump declared (noting: “I am always right”) that “climate change” was a hoax, and green energy was a “con job.” He failed to note that alternative energy was keeping even red, red, red (by gerrymandering) Texas powered with electricity. “On sunny and windy days, wind and solar energy often reaches over 60% of the real-time fuel mix. When this isn’t happening, ERCOT [Texas energy authority] must rely on thermal sources like liquified natural gas (LNG), coal, and nuclear energy.” Texas Legislative Study Group report.

Trump continued to admonish nations embracing alternative energy, particularly Chinese-made wind turbines, that they were condemning their nations to slow growth and failure. The future, he maintained, belonged to fossil fuels, particularly “beautiful clean coal,” even as there is no such thing. Sorry, but contrary to Trump’s statement, China has a great many wind-power facilities successfully in operation. Hurricanes, drought, flooding elsewhere and wildfires hung in their air, never mentioned by King Donny. Even as job growth in alternative energy was already eclipsing fossil fuel employment non-growth. His economic statistics about American success were littered with falsehoods and exaggeration.

He again took credit for settling seven wars and major conflicts, suggesting each alone was worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, which produced a wave of eyerolls in the leaders in attendance… his claim denied by those nations where such settlements were reached. His proselytization that nations should contain and protect their borders – a growing reality among richer nations as global politics is showing a shift to the right – seemed to dismiss droughts where local farmers could no long grow food crops and conflicts that clearly Mr Trump unable to influence… people with no hope and no place to go. That damned climate change “hoax” again.

Trump’s touting freedoms in the United States, even as his administration was directing federal agencies and administrators to take down his opposition with criminal prosecutions, was bitter irony. His claim that Christianity was the most targeted faith on earth sent chills down American bodies who continue to oppose anything that smacks of a national religion. His executive order against an ideology, “antifa,” as if it were a genuine organized existing organization, was equally chilling. Since the “fa” in that word refers to “fascism,” it is hard to escape that such an order was in effect an attack on those who oppose fascism.

While his sympathy for the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas resonated, his support of Israel’s mega-destructive military decimation of Gaza fell on deaf and often angry ears. Over 80% of the member states in the General Assembly have recognized Palestine as an independent state, including Western allies like the UK, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Andorra, Belgium, Canada, Australia and Portugal. But emphatically not the United States, which is universally viewed as the military enabler of this Israel effort, which many nations and U.N. agencies have labeled as “genocide.” Even as he denied visas to Palestinian delegates to this meeting of the General Assembly, perhaps Trump noted the Palestinian flag flying above that building, an official UN recognition of Palestinian statehood.

He chastised the United Nations as powerless and worthless, wasteful at every turn. He even attacked the cost of renovating the U.N. buildings in New York City, having lost a 2005 bid to be the contractor that was involved in desired upgrades. He smugly observed the serious cost overruns that would never have happened, he maintained, had he won that bid. He noted that the delegates were walking on terrazzo instead of the marble flooring that was in his bid. Wow, but it was a consistent “me, me, me” tirade.

He falsely accused the London mayor, a Muslim, of trying to impose sharia law in that city. Even though his US poll numbers are plunging, he claimed he had his highest poll numbers now. He was inaccurately selective in noting, falsely, that US prices are falling overall. Washinton, DC was our “crime capital.” I could go on, but if you watched that U.N. speech, I suspect his descriptions of the United (?) States of America produced more than a few eyerolls across the country. All this after Trump had declared that since Democrats were unwilling to live with his budget extension proposal, the September 25th scheduled meeting with senior Democratic leaders was cancelled.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I am shocked and amazed that I now live in a non-constitutional dictatorship that was once the flagship of democracy, increasingly hated the world over, with a complacent voting constituency letting it all slide by, ignoring the lessons of history where such complacency destroyed entire governments without a shot being fired.