Trump's not-so-great UN speech
Coinciding with news on the Ukraine scandal was a flurry of pro-Trump stories on Donald Trump's UN speech, under headlines like "The speech they’re trying to hide," or other click-bait declarations.
In conservative circles, social sharing focused on one highlight: Trump's purported "pro-life" statement: "Every child, born and unborn, is a sacred gift from God."
Trump's finely-tuned soundbite satiated conservatives. Never mind the opinion of thousands of American babies who are murdered daily by executive nonfeasance. By now, Trump has perfected the art of sounding righteous while doing nothing to secure the right to life.
The fact is, every Trump word on abortion has to be weighed against the rules he established upon winning the election. In his first interview as president-elect, Trump said undoing abortion has "a long, long way to go. Just so you understand, that has a long, long way to go." He was assuring careful listeners that his administration wouldn't hinder abortion.
True to form at the UN, Trump was most moved by the money aspect. When he slammed "a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand," he didn't say there was no right to abortion: just no right to "taxpayer-funded abortion." He might as well have trotted out the old line: I hate abortion, but I'm pro-choice. Just don't make me pay for it!
Scratch the surface, and we see a protect-the-money statement, not a protect-the-baby statement.
What about the "sacred gift"? It's meaningless rhetoric, when you can substitute an animal, tree, flower, herb, seed, fruit, or vegetable for the word "child." In other words, nothing about Trump’s platitude distinguishes human life from the rest of creation, nor puts any requirement upon government. It would be meaningful if our president had asserted America's founding principle, that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator" with sacred rights which governments must protect without delay. But Trump isn't going to urge the world to do what he will not—end abortion—while he ignores his oath to secure the blessings of liberty to posterity.
Trump's reference to abortion means nothing because it requires nothing. Abortion comes down to, in Trump's words, respecting "the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life." Yet if human beings have rights, sacred and endowed by God, no nation can claim the sovereignty to "wish" protection. Such a statement presupposes the right to choose by government, contrary to natural law. Americans asserted in their Declaration of Independence only one option for governments in the world: to protect God-endowed rights, lest the people remember their power and duty to "throw off [negligent] Government" and "alter or abolish it."
The UN speech is simply more evidence that Trump has no intention of ending abortion. Nor has he any interest in urging other nations to stop abortion out of fear of God's pending judgment. Rather, Trump was too busy praising Americans as a "proud" people, while downplaying the fact Americans kill their lowliest children. Without any sense of urgency in ending the abortion crisis, Trump turned to his real priority at the UN stage: to promote "pride" worldwide.
It's doubtful conservatives proudly shared the clip of Trump contradicting natural law and the Bible. They apparently were too busy being duped into crying "censorship" over a speech few of them bothered to watch.