Foreign desk: Trump Makes His Case on US Sovereignty

President Trump’s foreign policy is rightly often portrayed as “a mass of contradictions,” notes Bloomberg’s Eli Lake. But that misses a larger point: There’s a cohesive theme to his statecraft — American sovereignty. And that was the message of his speech to the UN General Assembly. Previous presidents “have, to varying degrees, embraced the UN and other international bodies as means for America to shape the world.” Trump, by contrast, sees the UN “as a way for the world to constrain America.” So he “emphasized how his administration has rejected what he calls ‘the ideology of globalism.’ ” He understands that “the UN’s structural flaw is not just the threat it poses to the sovereignty of its members. It’s the deference it pays to the sovereignty of rogues.”

Culture watch: The Truth About Lower Divorce Rate

Over the past decade, the percentage of American marriages that end in divorce has fallen. But Joe Pinsker at The Atlantic suggests that news may not be as good as it seems. Because, as one sociologist explained, “In order to get divorced, you have to get married first.” Meaning “people with college degrees are now more likely to get married than those who have no more than a high-school education.” Fact is, “college graduates tend to wait longer to get married as they focus on their career. And they tend to have the financial independence to postpone marriage until they’re more confident it will work.” This, in turn, translates to lower rates of divorce in that group.

Defense analyst: Why Jim Mattis Will Soon Be Gone

Soon after taking office, President Trump ordered a review of America’s ballistic missile defense in the expectation of strengthening the system. But as Loren Thompson reports at Forbes, that document “never quite got completed,” because it “was a threat to the military and political status quo.” And “because it would have signaled a departure from conventional wisdom, it got bottled up by players who didn’t want to see security priorities rearranged.” Which is yet another reason why Trump now doubts whether he and Defense Secretary James Mattis share the same views on national security — and why Mattis “will soon be departing his Pentagon job.” Frankly, Mattis “has protected a status quo that drains national resources to compensate for the failings of our allies and will leave the nation naked to aggression on the day deterrence collapses.”

Culture critic: #MeToo Depends on Journos’ Credibility

The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle says she initially believed any second allegation of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh would be automatically disqualifying. But in the wake of the New Yorker story, she’s having second thoughts. Because she’d assumed “that a second allegation would be stronger, not weaker, than the first.” And “given the thinness of the evidence, I’m frankly surprised the New Yorker ran the article.” The success of #MeToo, she says, is now dependent “on the credibility of the journalists who report on it.” Till now, “mainstream media outlets have generally been scrupulous” about getting confirmation before they publish. Because “when a weak story breaks into an already raging political conflagration,” it “threatens to turn #MeToo into yet another divide in the culture wars.”

From the left: What Trump Gets Right on Trade

Candidate Donald Trump vowed to no longer “surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism.” As president, declares The New Republic’s John Judis, he’s “made good on his promises.” And his attack on globalization, though roundly criticized by Democrats, “has struck at profound failings of American economic policy.” Moreover, he warns, “liberals who might otherwise dismiss Trump would do well to acknowledge them.” Because while he might not have all the answers, “at least he has fairly accurately identified the damage wrought by globalization.” Even so, “many Democratic policy intellectuals have peremptorily rejected his initiatives.” But eight years of international appeals under the Obama administration, notes Judis, “did little to stop the Chinese from undercutting American industries.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann