An Orwellian Unreality

I just read a rushed transcript of Mr. Trump’s address to the U.N. given this morning. Please take a few minutes to read it and then take a little bit to think through what you read.

I am so incredibly ashamed of the current occupant of the White House and the direction in which he is (mis)leading our country. In the course of a few minutes, Mr. Trump relegated the U.S. to the status of a rogue state. In effect, he put the various states of the world on notice that cooperation was not desired nor would it be pursued outside of U.S. interests and that the sovereignty of the U.S. was paramount to all global concerns. He extoled the virtues of the U.S. not telling other countries “how to live, work, or worship” and then proceeded to lambast countries for the decisions that they have made that are contrary to those U.S. interests. Mr. Trump also stated “We are also standing up for our citizens and for peace loving people everywhere” a couple of sentences after crowing about a record military budget. He was also laughed at for claiming that his administration has done more in under two years than most any other administration. Mr. Trump also deputized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be the arbiter of U.S. foreign aid based on whether potential beneficiaries have “our interests at heart” and that foreign aid will only be given to “those who respect us and our friends.” So does that exclude all of the countries whose leaders and diplomats openly laughed at Mr. Trump? Will he ask for various angles of recorded video so that he can make a list? Will he Tweet his findings?

Apparently the U.S. is exempt from any multinational agreements and can arbitrarily decide that it doesn’t need to comply with them. The list is getting longer all the time: the Paris Accords, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the decisions of the International Criminal Court, various trade pacts, etc. Mr. Trump made a pointed declaration that the U.S. will push its fossil fuel agenda in saying that “The United States stands ready to export our abundant, affordable supply of oil, clean coal and natural gas” while the effects of climate change continue to ravage the Earth. Mr. Trump stated that the U.S. is committed to maintaining its independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers in the Western Hemisphere. So when other countries object to U.S. encroachment on their lands and pillaging of their resources, the U.S. will just leave, right? Yeah, I didn’t think so, either.

In what I’m sure Mr. Trump believed to be a scintillating and stunning conclusion, he totally repudiated the purpose of the United Nations in a paean to jingoism and American exceptionalism that I’m sure warmed the hearts of the assembled dignitaries and diplomats who were just told that they were equal to the United States but that the U.S. was more equal than them. The speech was an Orwellian masterpiece.