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Yesterday, I watched President Donald Trump deliver his speech before the United Nations General Assembly. It was rather long, but I listened patiently to the end. In fact, I even took the trouble of transcribing the whole speech so that I could study it more carefully.
With a little help from AI, I did a simple word count. I wanted to know how often he used the first-person pronouns “I” and “we,” the latter referring at times to himself and his administration, and at other times to the American nation. I counted 64 instances of “I” and 101 of “we,” not including other forms such as “my,” “me,” “our,” and “us.”
As I listened, I also had the UN Charter in mind. After all, he was addressing an organization founded precisely to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to uphold the sovereign equality of nations, to promote human rights, and to settle international disputes by peaceful means.
With some AI assistance, I tried to examine how the main points of his speech squared with these fundamental principles. I was particularly struck by his repeated assertions of American military supremacy, his threats of annihilation against Iran, and his insistence on America’s right to use its military might to secure its national interests.
But beyond the actual words, it was the tone of the speech that disturbed me most. The repeated self-congratulation, the language of domination, the threats of overwhelming military force, and the apparent confidence that the world’s problems could be settled through the exercise of superior power left me with a deeply unsettling feeling.
I found myself wondering: What happens to the international order when the leader of the world’s most powerful country speaks of peace primarily in the language of power?
The UN was founded on the conviction that might does not make right, that even the most powerful nations must be accountable to international law, and that peace cannot be secured simply by threatening to annihilate one’s enemies.
I finished listening to the speech with a sense of foreboding. Not merely because of what President Trump said, but because of the enormous power at his disposal.
When so much destructive power is concentrated in the hands of one leader, the whole world has reason to be concerned about how that power is exercised.
May God help us preserve the fragile peace of our world.
