Fmr Clinton Spox: Trump’s UN Speech Was ‘Intellectually Confused, If Not Outright Incoherent’

During CNN’s coverage of President Trump’s UN speech, CNN Political Commentator and former Clinton Campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon stated the speech was “intellectually confused, if not outright incoherent,” and wondered what moral standing President Trump has to call for collective action by the world against North Korea.

Fallon said that Trump’s statement on the Iran nuclear deal “was one of many examples of how intellectually confused, if not outright incoherent, the speech was. If you just think about it, in one breath, he was urging the world to come together and collectively confront the threat of North Korea, and then in the next breath, he is chiding the world over the last time it came together and did rally as an international community to stop a nuclear Iran. He’s also withdrawn from the Paris agreement. He’s gone around criticizing the United Nations as a body. So, this is a guy who goes around thumbing his nose at international entities and international attempts to confront global challenges, and so, what moral standing does he have to call on the world to act collectively against North Korea?”

He continued, “If you think about it, he gave a whole tribute, in the beginning of the speech, to this idea of sovereignty, basically making an agnostic valueless vision for how nations should independently decide their self-interest and let that be the predetermining factor, and so — and then in the next breath, he tries to cast the struggle against North Korea in moral terms, good versus evil.”

Fallon concluded, “I thought this was an intellectually confused speech, it was a strained attempt to square his America first doctrine from the campaign, with the reality of the global challenges that the United States faces. You can’t decouple America’s leadership role in the world from the democratic values that we stand for and that have, sort of provided the undergirding for the post-World War II era liberal democratic era around the globe. I think it’ll prompt, probably a bunch of eye-rolling, if not literally, then metaphorically from other leaders of these other allied nations that the US — that he’s gone around criticizing during the campaign and since.”

(h/t RCP Video)

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett