President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday. The GroundTruth Projects Charlie Sennott told Boston Public Radio Monday that he expects the speech to echo the ideological tenet, “America first.”
Sennott believes that the address will also focus on North Korea, but will not feature the same name calling tactics Trump exemplified during his speech to the General Assembly last year when he called North Korea leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man.” Instead, Sennott thinks Trump will be promoting his new amicable relationship he established with Kim during their historic meeting in June.
"[Trump] basically has now talked about how [Kim] is really, really just a good man, someone who we can trust in the region, and who he believes we are making progress with,” said Sennott.
Despite what Trump claims, the U.S. has not made progress denuclearizing North Korea. Talks have since stalled after the summit and a meeting between Kim and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was canceled in August.
Nonetheless, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in participated in a three-day summit last week in the hopes of bringing the two counties closer to reconciliation. Sennott called these meetings potentially troublesome for the U.S. agenda.
“What they’re agreeing on, I think could really create some problems for the U.S. position because it could undercut some of the parts of the agreement that the U.S. is trying to put forward on a more strict denuclearization,” said Sennott.
Above all, Sennott believes that Trump must move beyond lauding a despotic leader, and trying to convince the country and the world that a major breakthrough has taken place.
“We can’t just keep going with the rhetoric and the tweets out of Washington about how great this president is doing on the North Korea front. It is a very complex region,” he said.
