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Spencer Ackerman in The Daily Beast:

“Whatever nexus between Putin and Trump exists for Robert Mueller to discover, the evidence of their compatible visions of foreign affairs was on display at the United Nations clearer than ever, with Trump’s aggressive incantation of ‘sovereignty, security and prosperity’ as the path to world peace.”

Not only was this speech a “worthy successor” to the president’s inaugural address — the “American carnage” speech — but it also resembles the United Nations address that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia gave to the international body in 2015. And though Mr. Trump briefly mentioned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, his speech signals a potential opening to a “resurgent, aggressive Russia.” Read more »

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Paul Waldman in The Washington Post:

“Does Trump actually think that if he issues a few more bellicose threats then North Korea will agree to give up its nuclear weapons? It would not be unreasonable for Kim to believe that his nuclear weapons are the only thing keeping the United States from launching a war against him.”

Mr. Waldman asks his readers to put themselves in the place of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. Why would any of Mr. Trump’s threats — and hints that he was willing to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal — sway Mr. Kim to give up his own nuclear weapons? Read more »

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Heather Digby Parton in Salon:

“One might even call this speech ‘Global Carnage.’Trump described a Hobbesian world in which decent countries everywhere are under assault from ‘small regimes’ trying to undermine their sovereignty and destroy their ways of life.”

Ms. Parton suggests an alternate title for the president’s speech: “Global Carnage.” In her assessment, Mr. Trump “careened wildly from some warped form of principled realism to threats of mass annihilation and back again.” She also notes that for all his talk about sovereignty, Mr. Trump has notabley ignored a particular instance of international interference: suspected Russian meddling in the U.S. election. “As long as foreign actors interfere on his personal behalf he has no problem with it,” she writes. Read more »

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And Finally, From the Center: