-Analysis-
PARIS — There was a time when the U.S. president was hailed as the “leader of the free world.” The whole planet once hung on his annual UN General Assembly speech to understand where the world’s foremost power stood. That era is over: today, we listen to Donald Trump much like we watch a professional comedian — more for the spectacle and punchlines than for any sign of leadership.
His hour-long speech on Tuesday will go down in history as one of the most extravagant, in a room that has already seen Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bang his shoe on the table and Yasser Arafat brandish an olive branch from the podium. Whether it was Trump recounting how his real estate company didn’t win the contract to renovate the UN building in marble, or his reaction to the teleprompter malfunction, the comedy could rival any stand-up act.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
There was the form, which drew plenty of laughter, but also the substance, which was far more sinister. Trump forcefully laid out his climate-skeptic, hardline anti-immigration agenda, undercutting the authority of the UN and lecturing the world, beginning with his badly mistreated allies.
The only thing he praised without reserve was himself, boasting that “the United States is now thriving like never before.”
This was hardly surprising — his stances, or rather his obsessions, are well known. Yet hearing him stand at the UN podium to tell Europeans they are “going to hell” over immigration and climate policies was still startling.
There is a dysfunctional superpower following the obsessions of its leader.
Only Trump would take to the world’s biggest stage to declare the scientific consensus on climate change a “hoax,” dismiss the Paris Agreement as “fake,” and brand everything green as “bankrupt.” His tirade was paired with praise for coal and fossil fuels, and even an offer to sell them to the rest of the world.
Europe’s wake-up call
We could dissect this long sales pitch point by point, but we would be missing the point: there is no longer any American leadership; there is just a dysfunctional superpower following the obsessions of its leader. The rest of the world has not yet fully grasped the significance of this.
The U.S. wields such enormous influence that its allies cannot simply ignore its actions. They continue to hope for a moment of reason from Washington, whether in supporting Ukraine or managing trade relations.
European governments are reluctant to take a stronger stance against this hostile administration.
French President Emmanuel Macron is working hard to persuade Trump to endorse his peace initiative, yet in his speech, the U.S. leader reiterated Israel’s position on the recognition of Palestine: that it would effectively deliver a gift to Hamas.
The fact is, European governments are reluctant to take a stronger stance against this hostile administration. They swallow bitter pills, such as this summer’s trade agreement, and avoid confronting what a report by the European Council on Foreign Relations decries as the Trump administration waging a “cultural war” against liberal Europe, benefiting its ideological allies on the far right.
The report urges Europeans to respond with greater resolve and dignity — perhaps that UN speech will be the final wake-up call we need.
