Trump takes his show to the United Nations

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Editor's Note: Samantha Vinograd is a national security analyst at CNN. She is a senior advisor to the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, which is not affiliated with the Biden campaign. Vinograd worked on the National Security Council of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013 and in the Treasury Department during the government of President George W. Bush. Follow her on @sam_vinograd. The opinions expressed in this note are those of the author.

(CNN) - President Trump faces numerous of his official appearances as campaign events. In his public commitments, he often focuses on criticizing those he considers his political rivals and boasting. In fact, he began his last speech at the UN General Assembly with a personal report on how much he had achieved in his opinion. He has repeatedly attacked the UN, but perhaps it would be better to explore a different approach this time.

The United Nations General Assembly is always an event of great impact for the national security of the United States, but this year's meeting will take place amid growing tensions with Iran, the nuclearization of North Korea, the degradation of the global non-proliferation agenda, humanitarian crises and others.

In addition, a dark cloud itself already looms over the UN General Assembly. While world leaders are arriving in New York, they are already well informed about the urgent complaint lodged by an informant member of the intelligence community about at least one of President Trump's communications with a foreign leader as well as the statements of Trump having spoken of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Sunday, the president said: “We had an excellent conversation. The conversation I had was mainly congratulatory, it was largely about corruption ... all this corruption that takes place; it was largely the fact that we do not want our people like Vice President Biden and his son (to contribute to corruption). ”

World leaders may be convinced that Trump is more concerned with his political position than with the security of the American people. This dilutes the credibility of the work of any US national security agency to the extent that our peers wonder what interests Trump really has in his sights: those of the United States or their own?

Posture change

On several occasions, the US He has been crowned champion by promoting the rule of law and anti-corruption initiatives around the world, also through the UN. The concept of the rule of law was even incorporated into the Charter of the United Nations; and through the Department of State and other US government entities we have programs that focus on making progress in this area abroad. However, our ability to promote the rule of law and anti-corruption initiatives on a global scale receives a direct blow when our president is seen as a model example of the type of actions we are trying to curb in other countries.

As reported to CNN by a source, President Trump has urged President Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate the son of presidential candidate, Democrat Joe Biden. And Rudy Giuliani confirmed that he has also asked the Ukrainian government to investigate the former vice president, even though there is no evidence of improper acts committed by Joe Biden or his son Hunter.

This news only reinforces the idea that the president is abusing his power to promote "own efforts." Allegations of nepotism, violations of emoluments, channeling of businesses to Trump's property and others have already described a picture of a president who stubbornly pursues his own interests. Faced with the new accusations of making own efforts and abusing power, other leaders may now have to include anti-corruption as a point of conversation on the agenda when they meet with President Trump.

We have an urgent business with Ukraine, which includes helping them curb Russian aggression. Instead, due to the president's alleged actions, the meeting could be overshadowed by the informant's complaint, Giuliani's efforts and by knowing the true story behind his last phone call.

Ukraine was already involved in this internal US issue. His Foreign Minister issued a statement expressing that Zelensky did not feel pressured and that Ukraine was an independent state.

Zelensky and his team are trying to move along the thin line between keeping the president happy (they must know that his anger has consequences) without sinking into his political cauldron. Battle in Trump's struggles is surely not a priority for Zelensky who has real priorities, including the armed conflict with Russia.

This cloud of a potential conflict of interest and abuse of power will surely also come to light in other meetings, such as with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister of Britain Boris Johnson and the first Minister of India Narendra Modi.

Even before the reporter's complaint and the government's decision to block security assistance to Ukraine earlier this year, world leaders already knew that Trump was willing to interrupt assistance provided abroad to countries that do not want to (or They can't) do their will. The idea that the president relies on quid pro quos explicit or implicit to obtain political victories has been reaffirmed by recent events. Foreign leaders now have a good reason to ask whether Trump's future requests are actions for the 2020 campaign or if they are in fact related to national security.

Opportunistic sympathizer

While Trump's bilateral meetings this week during the UN General Assembly will be crucial, his vision of the United Nations could indicate that he is an opportunistic sympathizer of this organization.

Even before taking office, President Trump had spoken out against the United Nations saying that the organization "was not a friend of democracy" and, as the elected president, said that the UN was causing problems and that it would constitute a waste of time and money if it did not reach its potential.

With his “United States first” agenda, Trump has preferred not to play with others: he is not a fan of coordination with other countries through international institutions. It has withdrawn from some UN entities and cut funding from others. In the budget request for 2019, Trump even proposed cutting US voluntary funding. to UNICEF. In his comments at the General Assembly last year he even stated that "the United States will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination."

This year, the president may need to go to the UN for support. Although the formal UN agenda includes a series of issues that the president does not like, among them, climate change and sustainable development, he will surely try to make other member states focus on the priorities he has in mind. such as reports indicating that Iran is behind the recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities after several months of illegal activities in international waters, and an accumulation of other evil activities. Iran's increasingly aggressive behavior will surely be a key issue for Trump in both public and private dialogues.

The government recently implemented new sanctions against Iran and announced the deployment of additional US troops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But these actions would benefit from the support of the UN. We have already interrupted most of the transactions with Iran and the US unilateral sanctions. They will surely not have much effect unless we are willing to punish foreign entities and individuals who violate our new sanctions or the UN approves similar sanctions. Therefore, exposing a compelling argument about Iran's activities in the General Assembly will be high up on Trump's list of things to do.

The exeption

Although he is trying to convince his global peers of the threat of Iran, Trump will surely try to mitigate the focus on another evil actor: North Korea.

North Korea has conducted several missile tests in recent months - a sign of its growing arsenal - and experts say its nuclear weapons are expanding. Trump's former National Security advisor, John Bolton, said that North Korean missile tests violate the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, but Trump will still try to downplay the missile tests. His position on North Korea will surely be in conflict with that of our allies at the UN and will add to the general perception that there is no coherence when it comes to Trump's position on regimes that are not conducted according to international standards.

While North Korea says it is open to a "new method" of dialogue with the United States, the discussion of denuclearization remains stagnant. Meanwhile, Trump argues that Kim "likes to test missiles" and will probably take advantage of his time at the UN General Assembly to argue that Kim deserves special treatment in the eyes of the international community. While many of our allies are worried about North Korea's growing illegal capabilities, Trump is the exception. The perception that their national security strategy is irregular and incoherent, at best, and that it may be driven by pure personal interest, will proliferate.

Translated by Carola Lehmacher-Richez

United Nations Assembly