United Nations, Sep 19 (EFE).- US President Donald Trump delivered his first address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, touting his administration’s achievements during its first few months in office and describing his vision for a world filled with opportunities.
In his wide-ranging address, Trump discussed his vision of the world, focus on national sovereignty and the threat posed to world peace by rogue regimes, such as North Korea.
“Fortunately, the United States has done very well since Election Day last November 8. The stock market is at an all-time high, a record. Unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years, and because of our regulatory and other reforms, we have more people working in the United States today than ever before. Companies are moving back, creating job growth, the likes of which our country has not seen in a very long time,” Trump told the General Assembly.
Trump said he wanted to address the threats facing the world “but also the enormous potential waiting to be unleashed.”
“Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens, to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values. As president of the United States, I will always put America first. Just like you, as the leaders of your countries, will always and should always put your countries first,” Trump said of his “America first” focus.
Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, said that while he sought a peaceful solution to the nuclear conflict with North Korea, he was prepared to take the actions necessary to protect the US and the world from the despotic regime.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself and its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump told the General Assembly.
The US leader then took a shot at North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, whose regime has conducted a series of tests of atomic weapons and missiles.
“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary,” Trump said, referring to Kim by the nickname he recently gave him.
The US president said a “small group of rogue regimes,” including North Korea, Syria and Iran, pose a threat to global security.
Trump pointed the finger at countries that assist rogue regimes, such as North Korea, either directly or indirectly.
“It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime, but would arm, supply and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict. No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles,” Trump said, referring to China, North Korea’s top trade partner.
The US president said sanctions were a first step in dealing with North Korea, but the international community needed to take further action.
“I want to thank China and Russia for joining the vote to impose sanctions along with all of the other members of the Security Council … But we must do much more,” Trump said. “It is time for all nations to work together to isolate the Kim regime until it ceases its hostile behavior.”
Trump said North Korea had only one option – to give up its nuclear program.
“It is time for North Korea to realize that denuclearization is its only acceptable future,” the president said.
Regarding Iran, Trump said the nuclear deal reached by the Obama administration with Tehran was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
“The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy. It has turned a wealthy country, with a rich history and culture, into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos,” Trump said.
The US president reiterated his commitment to fighting terrorism around the world, telling world leaders “that all responsible nations must work together to confront terrorists and the Islamic extremism that inspires them.”
“We will stop radical islamic terrorism because we cannot allow it to tear up our nation and, indeed, to tear up the entire world. We must deny the terrorists’ safe haven, transit, funding, and any form of support for their vile and sinister ideology. We must drive them out of our nation. It is time to expose and hold responsible those countries whose support and fi – who support and finance terror groups like al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and others that slaughter innocent people,” the US president said.
Trump also criticized the governments of Cuba and Venezuela, calling for democracy and respect for human rights in both nations.
“The United States has stood against the corrupt, destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom,” the president said.
“My administration recently announced that we will not lift sanctions on the Cuban government until it makes fundamental reforms,” Trump said.
The US leader noted that his administration had taken action against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
“We have also imposed tough calibrated sanctions on the socialist Maduro regime in Venezuela, which has brought a once thriving nation to the brink of total collapse. The socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has inflicted terrible pain and suffering on the good people of that country,” Trump said.
The president said that Maduro’s “corrupt regime destroyed a prosperous nation – prosperous nation, by imposing a failed ideology that has produced poverty and misery everywhere it has been tried.”
Trump ripped those who promote socialism as the answer to a country’s problems.
“From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure. Those who preach the tenets of these discredited ideologies only contribute to the continued suffering of the people who live under these cruel systems. America stands with every person living under a brutal regime,” Trump said.