Donald Trump Issues a Scathing Rejection of ‘Globalism’
UNITED NATIONS—“We reject the ideology of globalism” in favor of the “ideology of patriotism.” So spoke the American president from the pulpit, in the high church of the first ideology, before a congregation nominally convened in a spirit of global cooperation.
Ahead of his address at the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly, the buzz around the building was not about whetherthe world would witness a confrontational Donald Trump, but rather about who specifically oil-producing nations for ripping off the rest of the world, to nervous murmurs and laughter among the dignitaries assembled in the grand hall—his adversaries escaped the kind of wrath he unleashed on North Korea during last year’s UN General Assembly. Instead of once again dubbing Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” and threatening to “totally destroy North Korea” over its nuclear-weapons development, Trump thanked the North Korean leader for the concessions he has made so far as part of nuclear negotiations. That wholesale reversal served as a reminder that while the president’s harsh words for Tehran and Beijing were stunning, they were also subject to change at any moment.
