Donald Trump's UN speech: The hegemon is stepping up

US President Donald Trump's speech to the UN General Assembly can apparently be read either way. A commentator on the “Tagesschau” was pleased with the gentler tone that Trump had adopted compared to last year. It's all relative, it seems, because Trump is Trump and he delivered another tirade that was peppered with wild threats and lies, for example about the Earth supposedly cooling down.

US war crimes are not made any less serious by the fact that they are committed by presidents with the gravitas and dignity of office. When Donald Trump flirts with the “extinction” of Iran at the United Nations lectern, then this genocidal language must be called out as such. Just like the brutal siege tactics that the USA is using against Cuba, which is causing death to the people on the island.

The US President called on states to withdraw from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Perhaps international organizations should also be evaluated based on whether superpowers like the United States can use them to advance their own interests under the guise of universalism, or whether the powers aim to destroy them. The hostility of various US governments towards the International Criminal Court ICC - in whose dock Trump is not the first US official - can definitely be used by the judges as a seal of approval.

The taz is an independent, left-wing and opinionated daily newspaper. We have been arguing in our comments, essays and debate texts since the taz was founded in 1979. We often cannot and do not want to agree on an opinion. That's why you'll find some completely opposing positions here - all part of the very broad left-wing spectrum of opinions.

When Trump says that Iran is behaving badly, not because Tehran is strong and self-confident, but because the Islamic Republic is weak and desperate, that is actually a good description of the US government, and of himself. Unfortunately, the morbid hegemon is still armed to the teeth, and so the decline is a bloody affair. This colossus can hardly be stopped from outside, only with a new policy in the United States itself.