That the United Nations are an institution in identity crisis, weakened, in need of a rethinking and a radical reform so that recovering authority and impact – in resolving conflicts, guaranteeing peace, defending human rights – which today has a large part is a clear and established fact. But that the President of the United States, in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Attacks in a front, blatant and completely delegating the supranational organization born on the rubble of the Second World Waris to say the least disconcerting. However, predictable, yes, if the president in question is Donald Trump, who has never made mystery of his aversion to multilateralism and for supranational bodies, seen as an obstacle to his sovereign projects.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump asked in a passage of his speech to the glass palace. “Everything the body does is write strong letters and speak with empty words.” And again: the invective against the supposed funding by the UN to what Trump calls “the assault” of illegal migrants against western countries. And the claim of the role – that Trump is attributed – of peacemaker, against the inability of action of the United Nations: “I put an end to seven wars, I had to deal with the leaders of each of these countries and I have never received a phone call from the United Nations, who offered to help finalize the agreement”.
To comment on the intervention of the US President at the Palazzo di Vetro is the Professor Massimo Faggioli, Historical of religions, writer, editorialist, currently professor of historical and contemporary ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute of the Trinity College in Dublin, until a few months ago professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, in the United States, where he lived for many years.
Professor Faggioli, how can we play Trump’s words? Are they belly outskirts, dictated by improvisation, or dictated by a precise, studied political strategy?
«At the base in my opinion there is an element of verbal delirium that is part of the character. And then there is a design element that must be read as it was printed black on white last year, the Project 2025political program in which there is a series of detailed instructions on how to govern the United States and how to renovate them also in its relations with the world. That is the “Magna Charta” of the Trump 2 (the second term): the Trump 1 was still a mixture of old republican culture, establishment and Trumpism still quite indistinct. Now there is a clearer structure, the charismatic character who in the eyes of many has a value of political messianism, and an alliance around him made of great business, technology, religion (also of a piece of American Catholicism). And this project I believe that it will continue after Trump: who wrote the Project 2025 They are people who have been working on this type of counter-revolution or second American revolution for 20-30 years. And people like vice -president JD Vance are part of this future. Much more compared to the verbal growths of a moment ».
Donald Trump is an democratically elected president. However, when the Americans voted for him for the second time his drift was not yet clear. Trump 1 was however different. Who voted for it now is not confused, displaced?
«That Trump was different from what they expected is true, but there are no big signs of shock or protest in the USA. If you look at the positions taken in recent months from large companies, large universities, law firms, the media sector in the hands of the great business, you can see that there has been a choice to sit and adjust the relationships with the White House and not to raise your voice. What happened between November 2020 and January 2021, with the assault on Capitol Hill made it clear that Trump does not believe in constitutional democracy. Since 2021 it was already clear that the Republican Party had put itself in the hands of a technically subversive character. So the Trump we see now is partly a sopresa, but already years ago there were very clear signals of what is happening today ».
In his speech Trump said he had put an end to seven wars in recent months. For him, the idea of winning the Nobel Peace is now a fixed nail …
«The problem for him is the comparison with Barack Obama. For Trump Obama it represented the descent of America in the horror of a multirazzial, multicultural, multi -religious country. It is clear that for him the Nobel is a matter of racial supremacy. And it is clear that Trump, despite being mockery of everyone, suffers from a complex of inferiority with respect to the great policy. In his vision, the nobel would redeem him. If you watch the videos of his government’s meetings, you can clearly see how everyone turns to him as a court of bass empire, as if he were a sort of emperor Nero. And also the Catholic Church in the USA in part has risen to the winner’s chariot, partly silent and tries to understand what to do and say compared to this administration ».
(Photo Ansa: Donald Trump during his speech at the UN General Assembly and his wife Melania who accompanied him)
