Donald Trump has upended the polite consensus of the United Nations with a characteristically rambunctious speech. He began by attacking the institution itself which, extraordinarily, seems not to have had any involvement in his efforts to promote peace, and he mocked it for responding to global problems by sending a ‘stiff letter’. He was not best pleased either by the fact that the escalator broke down and that his teleprompter was not working. The niceties, ineffectual as they are, do not satisfy Donald Trump.
The speech made three points: that the global institutions do not work, that mass migration is a threat to the West, and that global warming is a con. In each, his argument is convincing and a fundamental challenge to Davos Man.
The global institutions are, indeed, a failure. The UN seems to do little but attack those who pay for it. The main contributors are nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Yet the UN shows us no favour. It found against us in its bogus international court, ruling on a case that was not within its jurisdiction on Chagos, As it is a court dominated by friends of China, it inevitably was not going to support the UK.
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