Trump warns that major portions of the world ‘are going to hell’

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President Donald Trump touted his administration's success but added that international criminal networks traffic drugs, weapons and people, and threaten America’s borders and menace its citizens with new technology. | Seth Wenig/AP

The president lashes out at North Korea, Iran and Venezuela during his first United Nations speech.
By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL 09/19/2017 10:18 AM EDT Updated 09/19/2017 10:55 AM EDT

President Donald Trump condemned authoritarian regimes in harsh and Trumpian terms during his first United Nations speech, lashing out at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man,” lamenting Iran’s "pursuit of death and destruction,” and warning that major portions of the world are “going to hell.”

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said Tuesday in a major address before the U.N. General Assembly. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

The president insisted that the U.S. is “ready, willing and able” but cautioned that “hopefully this will not be necessary.”

“That’s what the United Nations is all about. That’s what the United Nations is for,” he said. “Let’s see how they do. It is time for North Korea to realize that the denuclearization is its only acceptable future.”

Trump also singled out Iran as he called on “the righteous many” to “confront the wicked few” to prevent “evil” from prevailing.

“It is far past time for the nations of the world to confront another reckless regime, one that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing death to America, destruction to Israel and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room,” Trump said. “The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy.”

He accused the Iranian regime of turning a wealthy nation with a rich history into “an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos.” He cast the people of Iran as “the longest suffering victims” of their leaders, whom he said would rather fund terrorism than invest in improving the Iranian people’s lives.

“We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual destruction of a nuclear program,” Trump said, referring to the Obama-era agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump slammed the deal as “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions” in the history of America, calling it “an embarrassment of the United States.”

“I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it. Believe me,” he added. “It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran’s government end its pursuit of death and destruction.”

He also offered up a sweeping and dark statement about global affairs, declaring, "Major portions of the world are in conflict and some in fact are going to hell."

Before calling out North Korea, Iran and Venezuela by name, Trump warned more broadly of “rogue regimes” during what he described as “a time of both immense promise and great peril.”

“Terrorists and extremists have gathered strength and spread to every region of the planet. Rogue regimes represented in this body not only support terrorists but threaten other nations and their own people with the most destructive weapons known to humanity,” Trump said. “Authority and authoritarian powers seek to collapse the values, the systems and alliances that prevented conflict and tilted the world toward freedom since World War II.”

The president touted his administration's success but added that international criminal networks traffic drugs, weapons and people, and threaten America’s borders and menace its citizens with new technology.

“To put it simply,” he said, “we meet at a time of both immense promise and great peril. It is entirely up to us whether we lift the world to new heights or let it fall into a valley of disrepair.”