MS NOW international affairs analyst Michael McFaul blasted Donald Trump after the president delivered what the former diplomat called a forgettable speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning. “I think we’re at the end of the Trump era,” he told MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle.
“Who is this speech for? What is this speech seeking to accomplish?” McFaul, who served as the United States ambassador to Russia under former President Barack Obama, asked shortly before Trump wrapped up his nearly 40-minute remarks in New York City.
“It’s not clear to me what the objective of this speech is,” he continued, noting the president’s choice to focus on “domestic politics” and to open his address by saying the U.S. was “back” and its economy was the “envy of the world.”
“The second thing that jumped out to me was when he said, ‘I am not on the ballot in November,’” McFaul said. The message contradicted Trump’s own words last month, when he told voters “to pretend” he is on the ballot, during Republicans’ midterm convention in Texas. “He is setting down a predicate for when the Republicans lose badly in November. He can say, ‘Well, that wasn’t my election,’” the former diplomat predicted.
On the “substance” of the speech, McFaul said he was “struck” by the president’s comments on the Iran war and a possible deal. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world?” Trump asked. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”
“That, to me, is just, I don’t understand that strategy in terms of diplomacy. How does that play to anybody’s ears in terms of your interlocutors in Tehran?” McFaul said.
For the former diplomat, though, the biggest takeaway from Tuesday’s speech was not what Trump said about any one issue, but the message it sent about his waning political appeal, both at home and abroad.
“I think we’re at the end of the Trump era,” he said. “I think this will be forgotten as a speech. Nobody will remember it. I’ll bet you people are checking their phones right now in the building itself. They’ve heard it all before, and I think people are tired of it.”
“I think the world is tired of this bombastic ‘we’re the greatest place in the world, and we can do whatever we want’ — and I think the American people are tired of it as well,” McFaul said.
You can watch McFaul’s comments in the clip at the top of the page.
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