Trump Is the Odd Man Out at the U.N.

[RKP5637]

https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28208/trump-is-the-odd-man-out-at-the-u-n

When President Donald Trump takes to the United Nations podium Tuesday morning for his third annual address to the General Assembly, his audience may wonder why he bothered to come. By now, little mystery remains about his “America First” worldview. Foreigners are familiar with his commitment to nationalism, skepticism of treaties, affinity for strongmen, passion for walls, fear of immigrants, antipathy toward refugees, attachment to protectionism and denial of climate change. In sum, he rejects the very purposes and priorities of the United Nations. Those who still believe in multilateral cooperation are likely to endure Trump’s speech much as they would the offensive ramblings of an aging uncle over a holiday dinner. It will be a performance to suffer through, for at least one more year.

This year, the headline from the General Assembly is likely to be: Donald Trump, Odd Man Out. On multiple issues, the United States is going its own way. Climate change is the most glaring example. Other global leaders convene Monday at the invitation of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a Climate Action Summit. The U.S. president will not be among them. Leading the U.S. delegation instead will be Trump’s appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist for major American coal, chemical and uranium companies. Wheeler is now the point person for implementing Trump’s disastrous decision last week to rescind a federal waiver allowing California to set higher automobile emissions standards.

Trump will skip two more marquee gatherings this week. The first is the Sustainable Development Summit. As I wrote last week, the administration has actively undermined the Sustainable Development Goals, a U.N. blueprint for anti-poverty efforts, viewing them as a socialist plot to strangle economic growth. The second is a high-level U.N. summit on universal health coverage. Social conservatives inside and outside the administration are seeking to sabotage this meeting, because it reaffirms the right of all women to “sexual and reproductive health”—a phrase they interpret as support for abortion. Facing solid resistance from Western democracies who refuse to budge, Foreign Policy reports, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar are trying to rally a “rogues’ gallery” of autocracies and theocracies behind the retrograde U.S. position.

Rather than investing in international institutions like the United Nations, the Trump administration is perfectly content to obstruct these bodies, or even let them wither on the vine.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Brutal.

So hard to believe that we’ve come to this.

[RKP5637]

2. The US used to be a leader, now it's an antagonist and backward thanks to tRump in such a short time

[tanyev]

3. I wish pundits would stop saying Trump has an America First worldview.

He has a Trump First worldview. Then Trump second, Trump third, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.

[RKP5637]

4. Excellent point!!!!!!!! n/t

[renate]

7. What a great point!

It’s so true, but I’ll admit that I’ve fallen for the idea that he’s about “America First” because of the way he’s described without question as having that view. And his words do back that up. But his actual deeds are another matter.

[mopinko]

5. the perfect backdrop for the growing scandal.

remind them all where we stand in the world w this asshole, while we decide how outraged to be about why.

[Submariner]

6. Will the U.N. leaders laugh in his face and mock him again?

I hope so.

[RKP5637]

8. It goes right over his head. He just doesn't get it. Most of the world hates him. And the ones

smiling to his face are using him. What a damn fool he is.