JLH has compiled and translated a set of headlines from the German-language press reacting to yesterday’s speech at the United Nations by President Donald Trump.
GERMANY
Donald Trump Threatens North Korea with Total Destruction
The US President spoke before the UN and his speech was a singular plea for nationalism in accord with his motto, “America first.” This focus did not, however, prevent Donald Trump from making dire threats against North Korea.
Trump at the UN
America, America, and then the rest of the world
In his first speech at the UN, US President Donald Trump threatens North Korea, condemns Iran and praises himself. Nonetheless, his appearance is the most conclusive one thus far, and that includes various broken taboos.
Trump before the UN
No power that wants to lead morally can talk like that
With his first speech to the UN, Donald Trump dashed all hopes that he might be tamable. His threats against North Korea are beyond measure and dangerous. And so the world stumbles on from crisis to crisis.
US president at the UN
Another Trump is heard from
In his first speech at the UN, the US president attacked “rogue states” from North Korea to Iran to Venezuela. But he also struck other notes. His speechwriter is responsible for that.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Trump’s UN Speech
Fiery words and fatal misconceptions
Donald Trump emphasizes the significance of “sovereign national states” and speaks against North Korea. UN General Secretary Guterres urges unity — with a dig at the US president.
US expert[1] analyzes Trump’s UN speech
“That will not intimidate Kim”
US President Donald Trump’s debut at the UN, where he spoke of the “total destruction” of North Korea,” was not well-received.
1. Devin Hayes Ellis, director of the think tank “ICONS”
SWITZERLAND
The new Trump Doctrine could do serious damage to America’s interests
The American president’s declaration of war against North Korea caused excitement. What is more important is his foreign policy concept. It has serious weaknesses.
“Rocket man” on “suicide mission”
Trump threatens Kim with “total destruction”
Before Donald Trump, no politician has voiced such blatant threats before the UN.
Basler Zeitung
Trump threatens total destruction of North Korea
The North Korean delegation is sitting in the front row at the UN General Assembly when the US president threatens North Korea with “total destruction”
AUSTRIA
Why Donald Trump makes the UN small and not big
The US president has discovered the UN as a forum he uses when it serves his interests. In New York, he ignored everything else.
Trump’s UN speech summed up: broadsides and threats
The US president threatens North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Cuba. But why?
Reactions to Trump
“Most courageous speech in 30 years” — “Declaration of war”
Tuesday, 193 heads of state and foreign ministers were sitting in UN headquarters in New York, when US President Donald Trump hauled off and gave his big foreign policy speech. The threats against “Rocket Man” Kim Jong Un and the emphasis on “America First” policy were overwhelmingly criticized internationally. Only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “the most courageous speech in 30 years.”
LIECHTENSTEIN
Trump repeats “America First” creed in first UN speech
In his first speech to the UN, US President Donald Trump repeats his intention to direct US foreign policy to protect American interests. “As president of the United States, I will always put America’s interest first.”
LUXEMBURG
Speech at the UN
Trump sees the world “at a crossroads”
The parallels (with Bush 43 and Clinton) are apparent, but Donald Trump is working with a completely different concept of foreign policy. It is no longer about telling other governments how to take care of their affairs, nor about regime change or military interventions, says one of the most important advisers in the White House, it’s about results-oriented US foreign policy with just one goal — “America First.”
Well, the last shall now be first. The “Trump” card has been played. We’ve been last for years, now it’s our turn to be first (to be bombed, bankrupted, insolvent, invaded etc. by those whom Das Trumpt has insulted).
I think it was the right speech at the right time by the right man .
It is utterly irrelevant what the german press may be thinking about the speech . Their integrity and credibility have been sold off long ago…
“His [Trump’s] threats against North Korea are beyond measure and dangerous.”
From the press of a country which threatened, then took decisive action.
Let’s see, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Denmark, Belguim, Holland, Norway, France, Britain (he tried), USSR, Italy,
Very true. I was born in on of the countries … and can attest to your spot-on remark.
My own view of Trump’s foreign policy is mixed. It’s difficult to separate the rhetoric from the actions.
I’m totally in favor of the American First policy. I’d be happy for Trump to pursue that policy by pulling back from dangerous involvement in foreign affairs totally marginal to our real security. For instance, the US has no stake in Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and definitely has no business ringing Russia with active military forces and hardware. Is Russia going to make itself stronger by overrunning some Muslim-crammed country like Sweden or Norway? It seems to me the biggest factors causing a threat to Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania are their clamor to join NATO. Their security would be far more enhanced by seeking accords with Russia, perhaps at the expense of a bit of pride.
It’s pretty obvious by now that North Korea is going to continue its bomb and missile development. So, the choice is to tolerate their membership in the nuclear club, or initiate an all-out war with them, probably costing millions of Korean lives, North and South. Plus, if the North Koreans do manage to slip a nuke into space (they already have satellite rockets) and blow it a hundred miles above the US, the EMP will likely tie up the US for years, and might just cause massive deaths from starvation.
Unfortunately, the US has a recent history of destroying its allies and countries that are cooperating with us, so the massive push by North Korea to obtain deliverable nuclear weapons as a defensive measure is not altogether irrational, although Kim Jung Um is a really strange bird.
I’m comfortable with threatening to blow North Korea off the planet if they initiate any actual attack on the US or territories. That’s a totally different matter altogether from initiating a preventive war.
Trump is surrounded by neocons who want to inject the US into every dispute on earth. I’m pretty uncomfortable with this, but ultimately, as long as he doesn’t follow their preferences, we’ll be ok.
Trump emphasized the sovereignty and discretion of each country to follow its own course…except for Syria, of course, whose government that protected Muslims, Christians and Yazidis now displeases us enough to effect regime change through (not so) covert support of Islamist thugs.
And Venezuela…Trump rightly denounces the shortages and hardships caused by its socialist, totalitarian government. The US will fight the shortages and hardships in Venezuela by initiating commercial and shipping sanctions which will cause more shortages and hardships, presumably in the hope the hardships will become so severe, the government officials will be affected. This strategy has worked many times in the past, as in….?????
As an Austrian, I would call President Trumps speech a “Jahrhundertrede” – a centennial speech! It gives us all all it of hope for the future! A future for is which is not lost to islam, to genderism, socialism, EUDSSR, Eurabia, …!
On the question of an American President talking about “sovereignty” which apparently has “triggered” certain elements in the American media:
President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in August 1941, at Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, and they drew up the Atlantic Charter. This document laid out the principles which the Allies fought to defend during WW2. Against the Nazis. Here is what it said:
“The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future of the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandisement, territorial or other.
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StAwJCvRPuQ
It is rather strange to see elements of the American media attacking an American President for talking about sovereignty as if it is a good and desirable thing – when one considers the authors and the content of the Atlantic Charter.
Many Germans on the right– the AFDlers and most especially the NPD voters, are more than just a little anti- American. They like to point out that they are still being occupied by us, that we “own” them and Germany — 73 years after the war. I am not making this up, they say this on “conservative ” political blogs all the time. They also feel America is controlled and steered by the money-hungry Jews, they say
this often too. Thankfully, some
conservative Germans are pro-American and pro-Israeli, but I would venture to say, the majority are not.
In my opinion it is the same with leftwing Germans. They are pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalist = anti-American.
Does this mean that there is a group in the middle who haven’t been sucked into extremism on either end and still think of us as allies? Is there an age differentiation? From comments I have seen, I would guess the oldest and youngest voting generations–each for its own reasons–may be in that group.
I would say it is the 60- to about 75-year-olds who still are seeing you as allies. We jused to live 40 miles from the Iron Curtain! The younger groups have grown up in times of Reagan and Thatcher who were painted as monsters or been socialised by red/green teachers. I am 59, and my parents brought me up to be deeply grateful to the British and Us-Americans!