How anyone could have watched President Donald Trump’s speeches to the United Nations General Assembly and the one he gave to our nation’s military leaders and still approve of his performance as president of the United States is beyond comprehension. The first was an embarrassment to our country, and the second an insult to our military.
Trump will surely go down in history as one of the worst presidents in American history. For those of you who continue to defend him, history will not judge you well.
No other former president could have given either of those speeches without being the subject of impeachment talks by members of Congress the following day. If former President Joe Biden voiced any of Trump’s crazy remarks from those speeches, Republicans would have declared him mentally incompetent and demanded his immediate resignation.
Republicans, however, are silent on Trump’s remarks. In fact, the inappropriate behavior by Trump is expected and anticipated by most Americans these days. Even as we have become numb to his narcissism and lies, he went above and beyond during these two speeches to the point where even some Republicans are silently shaking their heads in disbelief and declaring that Trump is not well. Still, they are silent for fear of retribution.
To the General Assembly, Trump outdid his first-term speech in 2018 in which he proclaimed, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” The audience laughed at him.
There was nothing funny about his most recent address to the General Assembly, however, even as he proclaimed that he has ended seven wars around the world and “has the highest poll numbers I’ve ever had.” Neither is true, of course. That doesn’t stop Trump from claiming that he has ended wars between countries that have never been at war or aren’t even neighbors. As for his poll numbers, he seems to be confusing the concepts of “highest” and “lowest” poll numbers he has ever had.
Trump told the General Assembly that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his accomplishments and that it would be an “insult” to America if someone else were to receive it. I wish he would keep America out of his obsession with winning the Nobel Prize. We gave the world four more years of Trump; I don’t think that will earn us a prize.
Trump let it be known to the nations of the world that their countries are “going to hell” because of their immigration policies and that they should listen to his advice because he “was right about everything.” He didn’t “say that in a braggadocios way, but it’s true,” he said.
Some Americans feel like the nation is going to hell because of Trump’s immigration policies. We have farmers who need to be bailed out due to Trump’s tariff policies, as Trump is deporting their workers and insulting their trading partners. And we have ICE invading family homes in the middle of the night, scaring the heck out of young children and separating them from their parents. Let’s hear it for the “pro-life” party that wants children born so that they can be traumatized by federal officials in the middle of the night.
Bailing out farmers due to failed federal trade policies is an example of Republican socialism, where the government gives farmers money for not being able to sell their crops. It is estimated that American farmers will lose up to $50 billion in sales this year.
Can ordinary Americans get bailed out, too? Grocery prices are out of control. “Oh, no,” say Republicans. “That would be socialism!” How about extending health care benefits and funding the government?
Trump informed the other world leaders at the General Assembly that climate change and the need for sustainable energy sources like wind and solar are “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” proposed by “stupid people.” According to Trump, clean energy sources are “a joke” that “don’t work” and are “too expensive.”
Of course, solar and wind technologies are two of the fastest-growing industries in today’s world economy. According to John Feffer at the Institute for Policy Studies, “Solar and wind power now produce electricity at rates much cheaper than the lowest-priced fossil fuels.” According to Trump, however, these new technologies “were made by stupid people” and for those who continue to invest in them, “your country is going to fail.” Trump’s pro-coal policies, however, mean higher energy prices for ordinary Americans.
Trump’s speech to our military leaders on Sept. 30 was just as unhinged and full of falsehoods as his U.N. speech, but more disturbing because it was insulting to our military leaders. They had to sit there and put up with derogatory comments made by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and then listen to a rambling, inappropriate campaign-style speech by Trump.
Hegseth said that the military was too “woke,” “fat” and had too many “beardos.” He insinuated that successful women in the military were only promoted due to weaker standards. It is well known that Hegseth is not pleased with women serving in the military. Shortly after taking office, he removed the female heads of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy from their posts. Both are highly accomplished military leaders with outstanding résumés, but Hegseth appears incapable of understanding that women can be as accomplished as men in the U.S. military. Sexism is alive and well under the Trump administration.
Hegseth’s comments about the importance of military leaders being in top physical shape while standing next to their obese commander in chief were hypocrisy at its worst, but likely lost on Trump. Hegseth made it clear that appearance mattered more than performance, intelligence or experience, which is about right for the Trump administration. It was as if he were still at Fox News, lecturing other hosts about how they looked on television; evidently, more important than the reliability or validity of their broadcasts.
Trump’s speech was even worse because he is the commander in chief of our nation’s armed forces. To hear him talk about using American cities as “training grounds” to fight “the enemy from within” was disturbing and not consistent with their oaths to defend the Constitution.
The Posse Comitatus Act restricts the use of U.S. military forces for domestic law enforcement. No one has pushed that boundary further than Trump and Hegseth as they lectured military leaders about rules and regulations. Perhaps someone should be lecturing them about military law, tradition and professionalism.
Continuing his whining about the Nobel Peace Prize to our military leaders, Trump forced our men and women in uniform, most of whom have put their lives on the line in war, to listen to a self-centered, narcissistic man make the case for an award he doesn’t deserve and will never receive.
Of course, he only wants it for America.
Tom Zirpoli is the Laurence J. Adams Distinguished Chair in Special Education Emeritus at McDaniel.edu College. He writes from Westminster. His column appears on Wednesdays. Email him at tzirpoli@mcdaniel.edu.
