Trump warns that major portions of the world ‘are going to hell’ The president also threatens to 'totally destroy' North Korea during his first United Nations address.

UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to "totally destroy" North Korea and its "Rocket Man" leader, warned the "murderous" Iranian government that it cannot endure, and declared that much of the world is "going to hell."

In his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump also urged nations to band together to fight "evil" — even as he extolled the virtue of respecting national sovereignty and insisted that America isn't looking to impose its "way of life" on others.


The at-times contradictory remarks were filled with soaring rhetoric that touched on everything from "God" to "chaos," and the dark tones were reminiscent of Trump's inaugural address, in which he promised to bring an end to "American carnage." The singling out of a handful of "rogue" nations also seemed to borrow from former President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech.

"The scourge of our planet today is small regimes that violate every principle [on which] the United Nations is based," Trump said. "They respect neither their own citizens nor the sovereign rights of their countries. If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph."

The speech seemed crafted to please Trump's nationalist-leaning domestic base without alienating global leaders. Stephen Miller, a Trump aide with nationalist and anti-immigration views, is reported to have helped draft it, and Trump, known for talking off the cuff, seemed to stay largely on script.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a major supporter of Trump who is eager to see him crack down on Iran, was among the world leaders openly thrilled with the address. Israel is often the target of criticism by U.N. entities and harbors deep suspicion toward the world body.

"In over 30 years in my experience with the U.N., I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech," Netanyahu said, according to his Twitter feed.

Other foreign diplomats were relieved by Trump's 40-minute speech, although many approached the address with low expectations. Some were reassured that, even though he urged it to reform itself, Trump at least did not completely turn his back on the U.N.

"It was as Trumpian as expected, and we are getting used to it," one European diplomat said.

Trump's main target of criticism was North Korea, whose nuclear ambitions have deeply alarmed the White House.

The U.S. president went beyond his past warning that North Korea would face “fire and fury,” and belittled North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by again calling him "Rocket Man," but this time in a formal setting. Trump also mentioned Otto Warmbier, a young American held for months by the regime in Pyongyang who was returned to the U.S. in a coma and died shortly thereafter.

"No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea,” Trump said. “No nation on Earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles. The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.

"Rocket Man," Trump said, "is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

Trump insisted that the United States is “ready, willing and able” to attack North Korea, but added that “hopefully this will not be necessary.” Instead, Trump said, the U.N. should do more in a concerted way to force North Korea off the nuclear path.

“That’s what the United Nations is all about. That’s what the United Nations is for,” he said.

Trump aides later tried to calm the hype over his threats against North Korea. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted that former President Barack Obama had used similar language in 2016: “We could, obviously, destroy North Korea with our arsenals.”

Trump also singled out Iran as another common enemy of "righteous" nations, slamming its military activity throughout the Middle East, its human rights abuses and its ballistic missile tests.

“The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy,” Trump said. He accused the Islamist government in Tehran of turning a wealthy nation with a rich history into “an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos.” But he also spoke of solidarity with the Iranian people, whom he cast as “the longest suffering victims” of their leaders.

Trump further used the occasion to send a strong public signal that he may abandon the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration and several other countries. The agreement, which lifted many sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, is “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” in the history of America, Trump said, calling it “an embarrassment to the United States.”

“I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it. Believe me,” he added.

Trump also went after Venezuela in unusually lengthy and harsh terms, alleging that its increasingly autocratic government has taken “a once-thriving nation to the brink of total collapse.” He noted that the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Venezuela, where people are struggling to obtain basic food and goods amid an economic free fall, and called on U.N. members to add even more pressure.

"We are prepared to take further action if the government of Venezuela persists on its path to impose authoritarian rule on the Venezuelan people," Trump said, without offering specifics. “The situation is completely unacceptable, and we cannot stand by and watch.”

"The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented," Trump added, "but that socialism has been faithfully implemented."

As he touched on a range of other issues, from the ongoing fight against "radical Islamic terrorism" to the massive migration crisis spurred by civil wars and other conflicts, Trump painted an overall pessimistic view of the world.

“Major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell,” the U.S. president said.

But the solutions Trump offered at times seemed contradictory, or at least seem difficult to implement given the complexities of foreign relations.

For example, Trump nodded to the importance of multilateralism, saying at one point that "the powerful people in this room, under the guidance and auspices of the United Nations, can solve many of these vicious and complex problems.”

But much of his speech was focused on respecting national sovereignty and the right of a country to protect its interests. In fact, he said, the U.N. itself was initially "based on the vision that diverse nations could cooperate to protect their sovereignty, preserve their security and promote their prosperity."

"The true question for the United Nations today, for people all over the world who hope for better lives for themselves and their children, is a basic one -- are we still patriots?" Trump said. "Do we love our nations enough to protect their sovereignty and to take ownership of their futures? Do we revere them enough to defend their interests, preserve their cultures, and ensure a peaceful world for their citizens?"

The emphasis on patriotism, culture and sovereignty echoed in part Trump's speech in Poland earlier this year, when he said, “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive." Conservatives praised that speech as a stirring defense of liberal democracy against threats like Islamist extremism, but critics said it was religiously and racially divisive.

Analysts noted that Trump's actions in office so far seem to both support and undercut the various points he made Tuesday. He may rail against human rights abuses in Iran, for instance, but he says nothing about similar abuses in U.S.-allied countries such as Egypt or Saudi Arabia — a position past presidents have also taken.

And when it comes to facing shared, even existential challenges, most of the rest of the world has banded together to tackle the dangers of climate change. But Trump has pulled out of the Paris climate deal and did not mention the issue during his speech Tuesday.

The speech was "full of obvious contradictions on the idea of sovereignty as a core principle of American engagement in the world," said Kelly Magsamen, a former Defense Department official in the Obama administration. "On the one hand, it was 'every country for itself,' except that we want and need countries to address threats like North Korea collectively."

Stewart Patrick, a U.N. expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, added that there is broad international support for sticking to the Iran nuclear deal, but in the interests of "national sovereignty," Trump seems likely to walk away — undercutting goodwill from other countries.

Still, Patrick added, Trump has a point when he stresses that being part of the U.N. does not mean giving up a country's sovereignty. "The reception will be largely good internationally — he’s not willing to blow up the United Nations," Patrick said.

Trump's decision not to mention Russia by name in the speech also intrigued diplomats and others parsing his words.

Trump has long said he wants the U.S. to have a better relationship with Russia, although he has dismissed U.S. intelligence assessments that Russian interference helped him win the presidency. On Tuesday, he actually took a veiled shot at Moscow when he spoke of threats to the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Trump also was kept his references to China oblique: He briefly alluded to threats to sovereignty in the South China Sea, blasted countries that trade with North Korea, and said the U.S. would no longer put up with trade practices that treat Americans unfairly.

