RUSH: We go to Trump’s United Nations speech today, which was unlike any speech at the United Nations we have ever heard an American president give. John Bolton says this is the speech of Trump’s presidency. It is the speech of his political career. It was bold, and it left no doubts. He stood up for America first. And he put the United Nations in its place.
I’m sitting here, and I’m diligently doing show prep. I’m totally absorbed in what I’m doing, the Trump speech is on, and I’m listening out of the corner of my ear. And all of a sudden I hear “We will thoroughly destroy North –” I said, “Whoa,” and I rewound it there. What? What? What are we gonna do here? He said that we would thoroughly destroy North Korea if they don’t stop it, and called Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man” in the speech! I looked at the TV, I stopped my diligent show prep preparations, I looked at that, and I rewound that. If you’ve missed it, grab the audio sound bite 1 and 2 just to start.
THE PRESIDENT: As president of the United States, I will always put America first, just like you as the leaders of your countries will always and should always put your countries first. (applause) The United States will forever be a great friend to the world, and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else.
RUSH: Nobody at the U.N. has ever been spoken to this way by an American president. They’ve all heard Trump say it on the campaign trail. They’ve all heard Trump say it, strains of it, variations of it in the White House, but no president has ever dared go to the sacred ground of the United Nations General Assembly and basically tell them they don’t matter when it comes to putting America first. That the world will not come first. This global movement, it will continue and we’ll be a part of it with our allies, but we are never not going to put America first. And Trump urged all of them to get serious, to band together and fight the bad guys, to fight the rogue regimes like the depraved Norks.
THE PRESIDENT: 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. Now North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of human life. 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” is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing, and able. But hopefully this will not be necessary.
RUSH: You don’t go to the United Nations and threaten to destroy another nation on the planet. It isn’t done. Well, I mean, in World War II, League of Nations, there might have been some allusions at some point, but in the modern era, this just doesn’t happen. I don’t care how depraved the regime is, because in the modern world depraved regimes are depraved because of the United States. We’re responsible.
As far as these eggheads at that place think, we are responsible for the problems in the world because we have an unfair amount of the world’s wealth, riches, treasure, and resources, and how do we get it? Why, we went over there and we stole everything we wanted. We have dominated, we have territorialized, and Trump even addressed that. He made the point that we have never conquered, that we have never made any military action for the purpose of seizing territory and holding it, and we have never sought to impose our way of thinking on anybody else because freedom is not an imposition. This stuff is not said. It needs to be said and it needed to have been said years ago, and it needed to be said consistently.
I’m sure I am not alone when I tell you I have long ago gotten fed up with being blamed for everything in this country, blamed for everything in the world as an American. That our wealth, that our prosperity, our superpower status is illegitimate because it’s unfairly acquired, which is a crock. We have earned what we produce. We feed the world. We technologically advance the world. We share medical discoveries and all kinds of other scientific discoveries with the rest of the world. We’re first on the scene of natural disasters all over the world.
Now, Trump didn’t say that, but, folks, he got pretty close to spelling out what the United States is, who we are, the goodness of our people, the greatness of our way of life, our decency, our philanthropy, our sharing. And he said it’s time that the United States stop being taken for granted and so forth. And just like the rest of you in this crowd put your places first; I and we are going to put America first.
You know the difference? Americans putting America first is how the rest of the world elevates at the same time. It’s no different than your family. When you as a breadwinner or half of the bread winning team in your family, when you engage in behavior to increase your family’s standard of living, what happens? Even the people not working, your kids, their standard of living benefits and increases. Same thing here, just in a much larger scale because the United States is the greatest force for good the world has ever seen.
The United States is the greatest force for uplift, for positive reinforcement, that the world has ever seen. And that is why we are constantly rebuked, constantly derided, constantly criticized. We are looked at as the world’s piggy bank. Every United Nations policy is, in one way or another, a scheme to get the hands of the world into our back pocket. Climate change, make the U.S. pay for it. Whatever the issue, the reality and the purpose is always to fleece the Treasury of the United States of America. And Trump said all of this in his own words today, in a 40-minute speech at the U.N.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s sound bite number 28. This is John Bolton on the Fox News Channel this morning after Trump’s speech to the United Nations. Bill Hemmer asked him what he thought of it.
BOLTON: This was the best speech of the Trump presidency, in my view. I think it’s as clear and direct as it’s possible to be. I think it’s safe to say in the entire history of the United Nations, there has never been a more straightforward criticism of the behavior, the unacceptable behavior of other member states. There are a lot of people in the U.N. who have never heard anything like that from an American president.
RUSH: Exactly as I tell you. You just don’t talk this way. This is not diplo-speak. It is not diplomacy, there was none of that. It was just right between the eyes. And if there are any of you out there — and I doubt that there are many — but if there are any of you out there beginning to get worried — and I confess I am over this Paris Climate Accord business; I still haven’t figured out what’s going on with that. And you know my concerns about that. But this speech goes a long way to allaying anything. This was Trump of the inauguration speech. This was the Trump from the campaign.
And, by the way, I think that’s what the media’s gonna say. “He didn’t really mean this. This was just red meat because he knows he’s losing his base. He knows he’s losing the nationalist, populist base, so he needed to throw out some red meat.” And they will totally be wrong about that. But that’s what they’re gonna say. Many of them will. “He didn’t mean it. It was risky, and it was dangerous. You don’t go to the U.N. and say things like this that you don’t mean. He was just trying to feed his base ’cause he’s aware his base is abandoning him.”
His base is not abandoning him. That’s a dream in the minds of many in the Drive-By Media. Listen to this, back to audio sound bite number three. Trump signaled pretty strongly that the Iranian deal is not gonna last.
THE PRESIDENT: The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy. It has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos. We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles. And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program. The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it, believe me.
RUSH: “Believe me.” Even that speech pattern there, that’s off prompter. You don’t go off prompter at the U.N. General Assembly. You don’t even go off prompter for punctuation. If there’s a comma there, you pause. But I guarantee you there was no “believe me” on the prompter. There probably wasn’t even “and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it” on the prompter.
Now, an obvious question: Trump renewed the deal. He has not pulled out of it. Now, the thinking on this is that the Iranians are cheating on the deal and will continue to cheat on the deal, which will then provide the legal cover, the opportunity to pull out of the deal.
So Trump came down hard on the Iranian nuclear deal, as he has been, I mean, since he got in the campaign, campaign speeches, rally speeches, even remarks that he’s made after having been inaugurated. But yet when a chance presented itself to cancel the deal and pull out of it, he didn’t. But he continues to throw down markers to suggest that he will and certainly did here.
Embarrassment to the United States? I mean, that is hello Barack Hussein Obama. You were an embarrassment to the United States. This is the worst thing, an embarrassment. That’s a direct comment aimed at the former president, Barack Hussein Obama. So we have many more sound bites from this and ongoing analysis of what happened here. I can’t wait to actually characterize the speech in more broad terms, and we’ll do that after another obscene profit break here at the bottom of the hour.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The reason why this speech has caused such a reaction, and you might think, “Rush, it’s obvious.” Yeah, but it needs to be stated. Reality is much more compelling than narrative. Hard, cold truths, honest, uplifting truths, whatever kind of truths are far more valuable, far more long-lasting, and far more compelling than spin, than narratives, than the usual say-nothing diplomacy for which there is always endless plaudits.
Obama never said a thing at the United Nations other than to signal the world why he wasn’t being more authoritarian. I remember one specific Obama speech (imitating Obama), “Why didn’t we just put that man that made the video that caused Benghazi in jail? Why didn’t we do? Well, we did, but we can’t because of our laws.” I’ll never forget it. He’s explaining to these eggheads in that room why the guy that made the video that caused Benghazi, which of course was a lie itself, why we didn’t draw and quarter the guy.
Anyway, from mentally stable and healthy adults, reality is always, always going to be much more magnetic and compelling than narrative. It shouldn’t be a trigger. Reality should not be a trigger, but it is. Imagine the horror when all these members of the United Nations General Assembly, leftist viewers, and the Drive-By Media, when they heard Trump say, “The USA has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world,” can you imagine their reaction?
They don’t think that, folks. Actually, you know, I think most world leaders fully understand why the U.S. is great, and they hate it, because they’ll never allow what has happened here to happen in their countries. They live with a delusion that they, as dictators, be they benevolent or mean-spirited and brutal, can bring about the same kind of prosperity that has happened in the U.S. They will never give up their dictatorial tyranny. They will continue to believe that socialism and communism is the elixir for the masses. They’ll go to their graves believing it.
They look at the United States, they see freedom, liberty, the spirit that is created by entrepreneurism, you name it, and they are jealous. But don’t doubt for a moment they understand it. They just don’t like it. None of the world leaders I’m talking about would ever give the people of their countries the opportunity to actually live free as we do in this country, because they would not trust elections to elect them.
The United Nations is the best illustration I can think of that the main problem in the world is the unequal distribution of freedom, the unequal distribution of capitalism, the overdistribution of socialism and communism. But the fact the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world is self-evident. It’s as self-evident as the value of the combustion engine, internal combustion engine. And yet it is denied. It is denied by people who don’t dare allow it in their countries but yet who cling to a belief that the United States economy and overall existence can be equaled or approached, even under socialism and communism. And the American left in this country believes the same thing.
Trump said: “The American story is the story of what is possible when people take ownership of their future.” You can’t take ownership of your future if you’re not free. You cannot own your future if you do not have basic liberty. And this is the true American exceptionalism. Even today as we speak, the majority of the world does not know liberty or freedom. Certainly not as we know it. And if you really want to get down to what American exceptionalism is, that’s it.
It’s not that we’re better than anybody. It’s that we have the chance to be because we have 300-plus million people who are free to pursue their ambitions, however they wish, to be the best they want. And with that many pursuing it, it doesn’t take very many to hit their goals for this to be a great country. Not everybody is gonna reach their goals. Not everybody’s gonna be the best they can be. Not everybody is gonna pursue excellence, but in a universe of 300 million people, enough people are that you’re gonna have a great place. And the rest will feed off of those exceptional people who do so.
But in nations where no such liberty is permitted, in nations where no such freedom exists, there cannot be people taking ownership of their future and making the most of it. The state controls everything and in fact limits on the upside the results that people are permitted. There were no platitudes here. Some people might think so. But this instead was a speech of blunt truths. The truth about North Korea, the truth about Iran. “Rocket Man’s” on a suicide mission. (laughing)
I did a double-take. I rewound the DVR to hear it again. Memorable, true, will be discussed, criticized. But it will be remembered as a blunt truth. And Trump laid into Obama the Iranian deal, one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the U.S. has ever entered into. The deal is an embarrassment to the United States. Bravo!
The Clintons and Obama have deliberately misled Americans about these brutal regimes, believing we can do business with ’em, believing that who are we to say they shouldn’t have what we have? Because Hillary and Obama have no concept of good guys and bad guys. And if they do, we’re in the bad guy group because of our racist, sexist, homophobic, and now transphobic past.
He laid into Cuba. He laid into Venezuela, both places the Hollywood left believes are heaven. He laid into Venezuela. I did. I thought when he was laying into Venezuela, I thought I was in part listening to myself. He laid into Venezuela and Maduro by name. He said, “The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that it has been faithfully implemented.”
That’s almost an echo of an Undeniable Truth of Life here at the EIB Network. The problem is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been successfully and faithfully implemented. And he laid into bureaucracies. Trump laid into the United Nations while praising them at the same time. He laid into them while thanking them for some of the microscopic, great work that they have done.
He reminded them of the disproportionate share of costs, i.e., dues that the United States has incurred, and he said that that unfair burden would be a good deal if the United States served its stated purpose. But it doesn’t. It was a tour de force, ladies and gentlemen, for liberty and for freedom, ordered liberty, not dictators, not bureaucracies, and other groups of assorted elitists.
And it was delivered directly to members of the United Nations, many of whom reject every principle that Trump laid out. Slammed socialism, targeted rogue regimes, threatened to destroy “Rocket Man” and North Korea. And, by the way, there was considerable applause when he was tearing into Iran and the Iranian nuclear deal.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have one more sound bite from Trump on the speech. Remember, now, he’s speaking at the U.N. General Assembly, which is essentially a room full of socialist and communists.
THE PRESIDENT: The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure. Those who preach the tenets of these discredited ideologies only contribute to the continued suffering of the people who live under these cruel systems.
RUSH: Which they know. They know people suffer. They know they have to build walls to keep people in. They have to build political prisons to deal with people who dissent from the approved way of thinking. They know all this. (interruption) You were stunned he said this to their faces about the failure of socialism? This has been done. Presidents have attacked socialism and communism at the United Nations, naming the nations.
I mean, Reagan was all over the Soviet Union. If you recall, Reagan mentioned the evil empire and the Soviet Union frequently, including at the United Nations. The Trump point here is that the suffering of the people that live under these systems, these brutal dictators know that. The idea that they really live in some fantasy world where they believe that down the road this is all gonna lead to a greater prosperity and economy than the United States, that’s just cockeyed.
Now, I think they believe in Marxism in the theory, but it’s never worked. It’s never worked anywhere. Just like American liberalism has never really worked anywhere. And American liberals on the failure of Soviet communism said, “Well, just another example of the wrong people being in charge. It is the preferred system. They didn’t have enough money and didn’t have the right people.”
That’s why I contend to you — and I did back then — I contend to you that the people that voted for Obama, the true believers, there’s a legitimate reason for them to be mad. They had eight years. They had eight years, and Obama implemented quite a lot of what they believe, and it didn’t accomplish what they all believed. They had to witness the on-site failure of socialism in so many different ways while Obama was president. You’d be mad too.
If you’re a conservative and you believe in conservatism and some conservative president comes along and implements it, doesn’t work, you’d be mad too. Except it does. It works every time it’s tried. And the world is filled with such history.
Okay we start on then phones in Washington. This is Daniel, you’re first, and welcome. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Rush, thank you so much. I’ve been listening to you since 1990 when I was only 15, and I am just elated by this speech. It is the first time since Reagan, really, that a U.S. president has quashed the fears of the American people. I will never accept that it’s part of modern society we have to live in fear of terrorists, we have to live in fear of criminals, we have to live in fear of nuclear war from North Korea.
RUSH: You know, it’s an interesting take. I have been wondering about that. You know, you’re going to have people that are ambivalent about Trump that will watch this speech, and some of them, look, I have a piece Heather Mac Donald has written. In fact, I’ll lead the next hour with it, in a few short minutes. She’s a great writer, Manhattan Institute, done great, exemplary work on writing the truth both in columns and books about American policing and how all the allegations, Black Lives Matter, and the cops are racist and love shooting Africa Americans. It’s all BS, and she’s documented with scientific fact.
She has a piece in the Wall Street Journal that you will not believe. You will not believe. And the reason I point it out to you is that, you know, ambivalent people toward Trump are gonna hear this speech, and some of them, if they’re on college campus, the likelihood they’re gonna be scared to death. They’re gonna think Trump started a war today. They think this kind of talk, “That offends people, that makes people mad, oh, my God, we’re not safe, they’re gonna die.” It’s gonna have that effect on some.
On others the effect will be, as you said, “Hey, I like this. Damn right. Damn right. I’m sick and tired of having to act like we’re in defensive posture to these little creeps around the world. It may grow his base. Time will tell on that. Let me take a brief time. This Heather Mac Donald piece in the Wall Street Journal, when I share this with you, many of you are gonna say, “Okay, it’s over,” you know, culturally, and what’s happening on campus, it’s over and we’ve lost.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
It was. But wait a minute? What actually was this? As we talked about earlier. It was nothing but truth. It was nothing but reality. It wasn’t diplo-speak. It wasn’t trying to say something without saying it. It was boldly pro-American, which it should be every year when the U.S. president speaks. We have nothing to apologize for. We have nothing to feel ashamed of. We should not shirk from our role as leader of the free world and America’s lone superpower.
Those are things to be proud of. Those are things that we should seek to spread all over the world. These are things that too often in our country we see the need to apologize, and we somehow feel the need to downplay. And all of that is so unnecessary and Trump didn’t today. He was just bold. We’re gonna put ourselves first. If you’re an ally with us, you’re gonna be better off than you’ve ever been. He spoke the truth to the Iranians and to socialist and communists.
It was bold, but it was bold because it was so unusual. And it was so unusual because it was simply the truth. It was reality. In fact, Netanyahu says, “President Trump spoke the truth about the great dangers facing our world and issued a powerful call to confront them.” And Israel is a supreme ally of the United States. I hadn’t intended to get into that, but Netanyahu’s reaction just hit.
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