(ABC News) — Making American great again, in the view of the man who made that phrase a campaign slogan, means making the world understand that America is redefining the way it is seeking out that greatness.
That means absorbing the boasts, name-calling and contradictions in President Trump’s first address to the United Nations. Today he lined up a series of rhetorical rockets and all but dared his counterparts in the world community to try to stop him from launching them.
“Principled realism” and “strength and pride” are among the new touchstones of American diplomacy, Trump declared. In a speech aimed at his base as much as anything else, he delivered harsh warnings as well as complaints aimed at Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and Islamic terrorists.
He saved his most colorful and explicit threat for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, promising that if the United States is forced to respond to a nuclear threat, “we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
