September 24, 2018

President Trump’s Agenda at the UN

President Trump is currently in New York to give a speech at the United Nations and meet with many foreign leaders. His speech will focus on America’s new place in the world – including the “America First” doctrine. The Washington Examiner reports:

ON THE AGENDA — IRAN, NORTH KOREA, CHINA, RUSSIA: President Trump is in New York this morning as he prepares to assert his “America first” policy in a series of events at the United Nations, including delivering an address to the world body tomorrow and chairing a session of the Security Council Wednesday. In his General Assembly speech, Trump “will talk a lot about American sovereignty, how that fits into America’s place in the world as a whole,” national security adviser John Bolton said on Fox yesterday. At the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Trump will contrast the way he is dealing with the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran. “Very important to show how different his handling of those is because of the different circumstances,” Bolton said.

ON NORTH KOREA: This morning, Trump will take part in a relatively noncontroversial “call for action” to deal with the opioid crisis. This afternoon, the president meets at Trump tower with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who will brief Trump on the latest inter-Korean summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Moon is expected to relay Kim’s desire for some sort of formal declaration ending the 1950-1953 Korean War.

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That would be a major concession especially considering North Korea has yet to declare or give up a single missile or nuclear weapon. On Fox News Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will keep the pressure on North Korea until it takes verifiable, irreversible steps toward denuclearization. “Everybody’s got their own idea of what a concession might be. Some thought it was a concession for President Trump to go to Singapore. I certainly didn’t think so. President Trump doesn’t,” Pompeo said. “But what we’ve made clear is the economic sanctions, the driving force to achieve the outcome we’re looking for, will not be released. The U.N. Security Council will not reduce those sanctions until such time as we’ve achieved that final denuclearization.”

ON IRAN: On NBC yesterday, Pompeo held out the prospect that Trump could talk to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, but then just as quickly dismissed the idea as unlikely. “I think the president’s been clear … he is happy to talk with folks at any time,” Pompeo told NBC’s Chuck Todd. “If there is constructive dialogue to be had, let’s get after it.”