Has Trump decided he doesn't want to be the ogre?

Has Trump decided he doesn't want to be the ogre?

Donald Trump has made his first speech at the United Nations

If Donald Trump's first speech at the United Nations is anything to go by then it is going to be a pretty dull week.

He stuck to the script.

And many of the world's most colourful leaders are staying away from the body's General Assembly.

So while he has got over 100,000 troops playing war games on the doorstep of Europe, Vladimir Putin isn't coming to New York.

While he's sharpening his nuclear sabre, Kim Jong Un, North Korea's leader whom Trump has dubbed "Rocket Man", isn't going to pitch up either.


And Myanmar's leader, formerly known as the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been so silent on what the UN sees as an incipient genocide against the Rohingya in her country that there's not a chance of her turning up to face the music.

True, the Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani is in town. But he's not being held up almost universally as "a problem". Trump wants to tear up the deal that suspended Iran's nuclear weapons programme in return for lifting of sanctions.

:: Who's speaking at the UN General Assembly. Tap or click the pictures below to see what some world leaders have on their agendas.

But many others, including the UK, see the painstakingly negotiated Iran agreement as the best way to bring the Shi'a Muslim theocracy in from the cold, end the paranoia that creates the perceived need for nukes, and offer plenty of business opportunities in Tehran.

So hopes of fireworks and entertainment have been pinned on Trump.

But smart betting is that he'll not, as he has in the past, take a swipe at the UN HQ's interior design. He's unlikely to have a dig at the "pacifism" of South Korea, hint at incompetence in Scotland Yard, or try to drive home the idea that climate change is a hippie confection.

He needs support from global leaders if he's to be effective in ending or tightening the Iran deal.

He needs the support, and counsel, of major powers like Russia and China in dealing with North Korea.

And while he may see himself at the top of top table as the US President, he knows he cannot behave quite as badly as he did on a trip to Europe when he physically shoved the Montenegrin Prime Minister out of the way to get pole position in a NATO photograph earlier this year.

Trump: UN has not reached its full potential

Rex Tillerson, as secretary of state, has signalled that the US may sign up to the spirit of the Paris accords on cutting greenhouse gasses to address climate change.

What appears to be a concession on this key issue may be to do with a dawning understanding that genuine science can drive sensible solutions to problems.

Or it may be a recognition that Trump, a showman whom critics believe suffers from chronic narcissism, does not want to be on the uncool side of every debate - doesn't want to be the ogre that makes Canada's Justin Trudeau look better.

There will be some sideshow entertainment for the British as Boris Johnson and Theresa May circle each other over Brexit.

But without performances from some of the planet's great political players the UNGA will merely produce the sort of well-meaning declarations.

Does anyone remember that 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants which committed member states to better protecting refugees?

Clearly not the member states that signed up to it.