Trump threatens to 'totally destroy' North Korea if forced to defend self or allies

President Trump's debut speech today at the U.N. was one for the history books. The three-quarters-of-an-hour speech contained many firsts and covered a lot of ground. No American president has ever threatened that if America is forced to defend itself or its allies, "we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." At one level, this is obvious. A nuclear attack would bring nuclear retaliation, and everyone knows it. The doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction demands it.

That prediction of Armageddon was followed with "Rocket Man is on a suicide mission," using a nickname of ridicule against the regime, as he did with Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. I look forward to seeing how Pyongyang reports this to its people. I suspect that it will be portrayed as a compliment. President Trump also attacked the regimes in Iran and Venezuela. But my favorite bits of the speech were two themes related not to other countries, but to ideas. President Trump defended nationalism as an appropriate focus for Americans as for other countries and their leaders, including those assembled before him at the U.N. Implicitly, this is a rebuke to the E.U. in particular, but also other multilateral organizations. Sovereignty is anathema to the global financial elites. President Trump also ridiculed socialism and communism, stating that the problem is not that socialism was badly implemented, but "that socialism has been faithfully implemented in Venezuela."