Trump UN Speech 2019 stands in stark contrast to his predecessors
President Trump spoke at the United Nations General Assembly for the second time in during his time as President today.
The first time the President spoke before the UN in 2017, he was laughed at (he didn’t tell any jokes).
During his first address, he focused on what he had accomplished in the first year, he emphasized sovereignty as the key to world peace, and the danger of small rogue states.
Here are a few quotes that gets at the core of that first speech in 2017:
In foreign affairs, we are renewing this founding principle of sovereignty. Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens — to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values.
The United States will forever be a great friend to the world, and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of, or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else.
But in fulfilling our obligations to our own nations, we also realize that it’s in everyone’s interest to seek a future where all nations can be sovereign, prosperous, and secure.
At the time, many outlets were concerned that the President was moving in an isolationist direction.
Those concerns were well placed. At the first writing of this piece, the White House has not released the full transcript of the 2019 speech. The speech can be broken up into 4 parts: Nationalism is the pathway to peace; Restructuring alliances and trade deals; immigration; the future is for patriots not globalists.
Nationalism as a pathway to peace
There is a divide between those whose thirst for control deludes them into thinking they are destined to rule over others and those nations who want only to rule themselves.
Like my beloved country, each nation represented in this hall has a cherished history, culture, and heritage that is worth defending and celebrating and which gives us our singular potential and strength. The free world must embrace its national foundations. It must not attempt to erase them or replace them.
The truth is plain to see, if you want freedom, take pride in your country. If you want democracy, hold onto your sovereignty, and if you want peace, love your nation. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first. The future does not belong to globalists, the future belongs to patriots. The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations who protect their citizens, respect their neighbors, and honor the differences that make each country special and unique. Its is why we in the United States have embarked on an exciting program of national renewal. And everything we do we are focused on empowering the dreams and aspirations of our citizens.
Restructuring alliances and trade deals
We are revitalizing our alliances by making it very clear that all of our partners are expected to pay their fair share of the tremendous defense burden which the United States has born in the past. At the center of our vision of national renewal is an ambitious campaign to reform international trade. For decades the international trading system has been easily exploited acting in very bad faith as jobs were outsourced a small handful grew wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In America, the result was 4.2 million lost manufacturing jobs and 15 trillion in trade deficits over the last quarter century.
Immigration
Each of you has the absolute right to protect your borders, and so of course, does our country. Today, we must to resolve to work together to end human smuggling and human trafficking and put these criminal networks out of business for good. I can tell you sincerely we are working closely with our friends in the region, including mexico, Canada, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Panama to uphold the integrity of borders and ensure safety and prosperity of our people.
To anyone conducting illegal crossings of our border, please hear these words: “Do not pay the smugglers, do not pay the coyotes, do not put yourself in danger, do not put your children in danger, because if you make it here you will not be allowed in. You will be promptly returned home. You will not be released into our country as long as I am president of the United States. We will enforce our laws and protect our borders. For all of the countries in the western hemisphere, our goal is to help everyone to invest in the bright futures of your own nation.
The future is for patriots not globalists
Tyranny advances under many names and many theories but it always comes down to the desire for domination. It protects not the interests of many, but the privilege of few. Our founders gave us a system designed to restrain this dangerous impulse. We choose to entrust American power to those most invested in the fate or our nation. A proud and fiercely independent people. The true good of the nation can only be perused by those who love it, by citizens who are rooted in its history, who are nourished by its culture, committed to its values, attached to its people, and who know that its future is theirs to build or theirs to lose. Patriots see a nation and its destiny in ways no one else can. Liberty is only preserved, sovereignty is only secured, democracy is only sustained, greatness is only realized by the will and devotion of patriots.
Love of our nations makes the world better for all nations. So to all the leaders here today join us in the most fulling mission a person can have, the most profound contribution that anyone can make, lift up your nation, cherish your culture, honor your histories, treasure your citizens, make your countries strong, and prosperous, and righteous. Honor the dignity of your people and nothing will be outside of your reach. When our nations are greater the future will be brighter. Our people will be happier and our partnerships will be stronger. With God’s help together we will cast off the enemies of liberty and overcome the oppressors of dignity.
My fellow leaders, the path to peace, and progress, and freedom, and justice, and a better world for all humanity begins at home. Thank you. God bless you. God bless the Nations of the World. And may God bless America.
This speech stands in stark contrast to past presidents.
Obama’s final address to the UN:
And so I believe that at this moment we all face a choice. We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration. Or we can retreat into a world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion.
I want to suggest to you today that we must go forward, and not backward. I believe that as imperfect as they are, the principles of open markets and accountable governance, of democracy and human rights and international law that we have forged remain the firmest foundation for human progress in this century. I make this argument not based on theory or ideology, but on facts — facts that all too often, we forget in the immediacy of current events.
The United Nations was born in the hope that survived a world war — the hope of a world moving toward justice, escaping old patterns of conflict and fear. The founding members resolved that the peace of the world must never again be destroyed by the will and wickedness of any man. We created the United Nations Security Council, so that, unlike the League of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be more than wishes. After generations of deceitful dictators and broken treaties and squandered lives, we dedicated ourselves to standards of human dignity shared by all, and to a system of security defended by all.
Let me start by being clear about where the United States stands. The United States occupies a unique position in world affairs today. We recognize that, and we welcome it. Yet, with the cold war over, I know many people ask whether the United States plans to retreat or remain active in the world and, if active, to what end. Many people are asking that in our own country as well. Let me answer that question as clearly and plainly as I can. The United States intends to remain engaged and to lead. We cannot solve every problem, but we must and will serve as a fulcrum for change and a pivot point for peace.
As democracy flourishes, so does the opportunity for a third historical breakthrough: international cooperation. A year ago, the Soviet Union joined the United States and a host of other nations in defending a tiny country against aggression and opposing Saddam Hussein. For the very first time on a matter of major importance, superpower competition was replaced with international cooperation. The United Nations, in one of its finest moments, constructed a measured, principled, deliberate, and courageous response to Saddam Hussein. It stood up to an outlaw who invaded Kuwait, who threatened many states within the region, who sought to set a menacing precedent for the post-cold war world. The coalition effort established a model for the collective settlement of disputes. Members set the goal, the liberation of Kuwait, and devised a courageous, unified means of achieving that goal.
And now, for the first time, we have a real chance to fulfill the U.N. Charter’s ambition of working “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and nations large and small to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” Those are the words from the charter. We will not revive these ideals if we fail to acknowledge the challenge that the renewal of history presents.
It also is the foundation stone in any structure of world peace. All through history, it has been the dictatorships and the tyrannies that have surrendered first to the cult of militarism and the pursuit of war. Countries based on the consent of the governed, countries that recognize the unalienable rights of the individual, do not make war on each other. Peace is more than just the absence of war. True peace is justice, true peace is freedom. And true peace dictates the recognition of human rights.
Commitments were made more than 10 years ago in Helsinki concerning these rights and their recognition. We need only look to the East today to see how sadly unfulfilled those commitments are. The persecution of scientists, religious leaders, peace activists, political dissenters and other prisoners of conscience continues unabated behind the Iron Curtain. You know, one section of the Helsinki accords even speaks to ‘’improvement of working conditions of journalists.’’
So, it is clear that progress in the human rights area must keep pace with progress in other areas. A failure on this score will hinder further movement in East-West relations. Twin Objectives Of U.N. Charter These, then, are the areas of concern and of opportunity that the United States sees in the quest for peace and freedom — the twin objectives of the U.N. Charter.
One of the greatest challenges before us as a nation, and therefore one of our greatest opportunities, is to participate in molding a global economic system which will bring greater prosperity to the people of all countries.
I also believe that the developing countries must acquire fuller participation in the global economic decision-maker process.
We must also recognize that the world is facing serious shortages of energy. This is a truly global problem. For our part, we are determined to reduce waste and to work with others toward a proper sharing of the benefits and costs of energy resources.
In fact, one of the paramount problems of our time is that we must transcend the old patterns of power politics in which nations sought to exploit every volatile situation for their own advantage, or to squeeze the maximum advantage for themselves out of every negotiation.
In today’s world, and especially where the nuclear powers are involved, such policies invite the risk of confrontations and could spell disaster for all. The changes in the world since World War II have made more compelling than ever the central idea behind the United Nations: that individual nations must be ready at last to take a farsighted and a generous view. The profoundest national interest of our time — for every nationals not immediate gain but the preservation of peace.
My friends and fellow citizens of the world, soon you will return to your homelands. I hope you will take with you my gratitude for your generosity in hearing me so late in the session. I hope you will convey to your countrymen the gratitude of all Americans for the companionship of sorrow which you shared with us in your messages of the last few weeks. And I hope that you will tell them that the United States of America, sobered by tragedy, united in sorrow, renewed in spirit, faces the New Year determined that world peace, civil rights, and human welfare become not an illusion but a reality.
Man’s age-old hopes remain our goal: that this world, under God, can be safe for diversity, and free from hostility, and a better place for our children and for all generations in the years to come. And therefore any man and any nation that seeks peace, and hates war, and is willing to fight the good fight against hunger and disease and ignorance and misery, will find the United States of America by their side, willing to walk with them, walk with them every step of the way.
I know that the American people share my deep belief that if a danger exists in the world, it is a danger shared by all; and equally, that if hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope should be shared by all. Finally, if there is to be advanced any proposal designed to ease even by the smallest measure the tensions of today’s world, what more appropriate audience could there be than the members of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
