NEW YORK (AP) – Faced with growing tumult at home and abroad, President Donald Trump heads into his three-day visit to the United Nations this week hoping to lean on strained alliances while fending off questions about whether he sought foreign help to damage a political rival.
Trump’s latest UN trip comes after nearly three years of an “America First” foreign policy that has unsettled allies and shredded multinational pacts.
A centerpiece of this year’s UN schedule will be a session on climate change yesterday that Trump plans to skip.
Instead, he will address a meeting about the persecution of religious minorities, particularly Christians, an issue that resonates with Trump’s evangelical supporters.
The President arrived in New York last Sunday against a backdrop of swirling international tensions, including questions about his relationship with Ukraine, the uncertain future of Brexit, the US trade war with China, stalled nuclear negotiations with North Korea, and a weakening global economy.
The most immediate challenge may be Iran.
Trump will try to convince skeptical global capitals to help build a coalition to confront Tehran after the United States blamed it for last week’s strike at a Saudi Arabia oil field.
“Well, I always like a coalition,” Trump said Friday, before going on to complain that under the old Iran nuclear deal, “everyone else is making money and we’re not.”
Trump’s fulfillment of a campaign promise to exit the Iran nuclear deal has had wide ripple effects, leading Tehran to bolster its nuclear capabilities and dismaying European capitals who worked to establish the original agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, has been trying to lead Trump back to a deal and has suggested that the US President meet with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN meetings.
Trump said Sunday that while “nothing is ever off the table completely,” he had no intention of meeting with Rouhani.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran spiked after a Saudi Arabia oil field was partially destroyed in an attack that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed on Iran and deemed “an act of war.”