Editorial Board

Trump Strikes a False Note at the United Nations

His overheated rhetoric will make it harder to pursue reforms, recruit allies and counter threats.

September 20, 2017 at 12:00 PM UTC

By The Editorial Board

The Editorial Board publishes the views of the editors across a range of national and global affairs.

Do you feel me, Rocket Man?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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For President Donald Trump, apparently, encouraging greater international cooperation is not as important as getting off a good insult. In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump threatened to "totally destroy North Korea" in the event of war and repeated his latest derogatory nickname for its leader, Kim Jong Un: "Rocket Man."

Trump's rhetoric, as well as his many references to the importance of sovereignty, will strike a chord with his American base of support. Before this audience, however, the style was inappropriate -- and the substance was puzzling. If the UN is such a threat to the sovereignty of its largest funder, for example, why has the U.S. seen fit to veto only one out of more than 600 United Nations Security Council Resolutions in the last 10 years?