Analysis: Warlike tones never heard before in the UN

There was little applause and there was mostly a tense silence during the 40 minutes President Donald Trump gave his maiden speech at the UN.

Not a word was said about global solidarity, it was a speech that praised nationalism and in many respects rejected the very basic idea of ​​the United Nations.

The UN, which is to work for peace, Donald Trump seemed to see more as an arena for aggressive initiatives.

The outbursts against countries that the United States sees as its enemies were severely polarized and brought to mind President George Bush's speech to the UN General Assembly in 2002 when he coined the term "axis of evil" about North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

Trump is threatening to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran and he said he could "wipe out" North Korea.

Warlike tones never heard before in the UN General Assembly.

Set an ultimatum

The United States under Donald Trump is moving away from the UN.

The US delegation was this year at the UN opening ceremony half as big as it usually is and at many of the conferences held this week at the UN, there are simply no US diplomats at the tables.

Many positions in the US State Department are vacant after officials choose to resign.

Trump's closest has tried to mitigate Trump's outcome and, among other things, opened up for a peaceful solution with North Korea, but in the speech Donald Trump issued an ultimatum that painted the United States in a corner.

Either North Korea stops its nuclear tests or there will be a war, as commentators interpreted the meaning of Trump's speeches today.

Now it is nationalism, "America First", that applies, said Donald Trump and urged other countries to think the same way, to put their interests first and let "people" decide their own destiny.

The desire for states to avoid the international community getting involved in countries' affairs has often been expressed by China and Russia, now the message from the United States sounds the same.

The coolest outcome so far against North Korea

In Donald Trump's worldview, the UN does not play a major role, other than in helping the United States protect itself from its enemies.

He made his most outspoken attack on North Korea to date, saying that the United States is fully prepared to wipe out the country militarily, but added that this is exactly what the UN is there for, to ensure that such things do not have to happen.

In the fight against terrorism and "murderous regimes" such as Iran and North Korea, Trump urged the countries of the world not to stand by and passively watch the course of history, but to help eliminate the terror that, according to Trump, has spread to all corners of the world. 

But when it comes to other global struggles in which UN member states are involved, the new US administration has chosen to stay out, to save the earth from continued global warming.

Only the United States, together with Syria and Nicaragua, are not participating in the work of the United Nations under the Paris Agreement.

Donald Trump did not touch on the climate crisis in a word.

During the week, the tone between the United States and Iran has sharpened significantly, and Trump accused Iran of cheating with his part of the non-proliferation agreement for the country's nuclear energy program that Iran signed in 2015.  

Here, too, the United States appears isolated, the five countries in the UN Security Council that also signed the agreement do not share the view that Iran is cheating with its commitments.

But no later than October 15, Trump has threatened that he may unilaterally terminate the agreement with Iran, which was one of his election promises.

The United States is reducing its involvement in the UN

Donald Trump has often criticized the UN for its bureaucracy and lack of efficiency and the fact that the United States alone accounts for a quarter of the UN budget.

Here he is supported by all who have an insight into the UN's internal work.

The UN is in many ways a disgraced colossus, but so far Trump's criticism of the UN has not been followed by proposals on how the colossus can be reformed.

Trump has instead said that he wants to prioritize Americans' needs for education and infrastructure instead of spending money on poor countries.

The United States is now reducing its involvement in the UN and has, among other things, reduced its aid to famine disasters, education, climate aid to poor countries, agricultural aid and education.

A final startling paradox is how Donald Trump has withdrawn his support for NGOs that work for women's health through the UN.

But in his speech today, he briefly praised the UN idea because it is based on a beautiful idea of ​​helping the poor and supporting the situation of women and girls in the world.

It will now take several days to fully understand the breadth of the contradictory signals that the world's collective leaders had to listen to today.

Former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld's words about the purpose of the UN hovered over the hall.

"The UN was not created to take humanity to heaven but to save it from hell."