U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after addressing the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., September 23, 2025. REUTERS/Al Drago
President Donald Trump delivered a 56-minute, low-energy speech to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday morning that Joel Rubin, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, described on MSNBC as "incredibly damaging" and "completely bonkers."
After kicking off the speech complaining about a broken escalator he was forced to climb on his way in, Trump, who still did not beat Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's recordbreaking four and a half hour speech in 1960, took unwarranted victory laps on his debunked claims of ending seven wars, for ending inflation, and campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The speech, says Rubin, was an abject disaster.
"Ive never seen a speech like this. This was bonkers, this was out of control, it made no strategic sense, it did not lay out a vision for how we are going to actually achieve our goals in a multilateral forum, " Rubin said. "It did not talk about the threats the United States faces and what we need to do to counter them."
Trump, Rubin says, has other concerns.
"Apparently the biggest threat right now is renewable energy. That's our number one concern. Not nuclear weapons or terrorism or China's encroachment in Asia, or Russia's war against Ukraine."
Rubin, a Democrat who also worked in the George W. Bush administration, said the speech was also "incredibly damaging to America's standing in the world, damaging to our national security strategy, and damaging to how other countries are now going to deal with us, which means they're just going to move further and further away as this kind of communication and leadership continues."
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