It has always been the case that when someone speaks, what they say has meaning. But, when the president of the United States speaks, the meaning has more volume and the purpose travels farther. Donald gave his first truly international speech of his presidency, by addressing the full body of the United Nations. And by full we of course mean minus those who walked out prior to or during his speech. The latest of As The Donald Turns is “Words Matter.”

As The Donald Turns

• So, Donald took his role as leader of the free world and addressed the general assembly of the United Nations Tuesday. Fox News got ready to laud praise on him, no matter what came out of his mouth, and the normal people waited to see what he would say. In a speech that was either written with very little punctuation, or presented as such, Donald breathlessly went from one thought to another, usually with little to no literary segue.This made it hard to tell what the overriding theme of the speech was.

It then became evident. The speech was about everything all at once and nothing in particular. Hey, it may be President Pence giving the next UN address, so Donald had to get everything in that he could come up with. Being dramatically uncomfortable with a teleprompter, Donald did what he does…pivoted on cue, from right to left, and back, trying to look natural.

Take That, Kim Jong Un

• While Donald somewhat rambled about there being great opportunity and amazing world peril all at the same time, he finally found the note that people had been waiting for. He verbally went at North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Donald said it was time for the world to rally to shut down the “rogue government.” He made it clear his patience with Kim was running out, and he repeated a childish nickname he used on twitter over the weekend.

“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. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

The words, “defend itself or its allies,” are clear. What is not clear is what Donald considers self-defense. It kind of matters since before the entire world, he threatened the annihilation of an entire country and its people. That of course would likely make him the largest mass murderer in the history of well…..forever. It also does not consider that the first time Kim gets spooked by erratic Donald, his first target is 20,000 US troops that are sitting ducks in the DMZ.

Then there is just the very basic idea that the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, takes to schoolyard nicknames for other world leaders. And make no mistake, it was not an ad lib moment. The White House has confirmed that the term was on the teleprompter, as part of the speech written by the Shame of Santa Monica, Stephen Miller. He also gave the North Korean dictator all the further ammunition he needs to convince his information-deprived people that the US will attack them soon.

Fox Liked It

• Fox News droolingly wondered what it was like to say those things in front of the North Korean delegation at the UN. The folks at Fox News apparently do not have TV monitors at their little television setup. If they did, they would have seen the North Korean delegation walked out before Donald started his speech. The only person left there was some kid taking notes.

• North Korea was not the only target for Donald. Barrack Obama was called out also, albeit indirectly. Donald called Iran a “rogue nation” and said the U.N.-backed deal initiated by Obama is “an embarrassment to the United States.” He added, “I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it, believe me.” Of course, the assumption is that Donald wants out of the Iran deal. He says they have been violating it even though nuclear inspectors recently determined that inspections found no evidence Iran is in violation of the agreement.

The other countries that negotiated the deal, including China, France and Germany, will meet separately without the US. French President Emmanuel Macron had the gall to give a speech endorsing the continuation of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Meanwhile the Iranian ambassador to the UN stayed and watched Donald’s speech, no doubt hoping like crazy that unhinged president does “tear up” the Iranian agreement. No agreement means Iran will go forward with its nuclear program with no threat of international sanctions.

• We don’t anyone else to feel left out, so it is important to note that Donald also went off on Venezuela:

“We cannot stand by and watch. As a responsible neighbor and friend, we and all others have a goal. That goal is to help them regain their freedom, recover their country and restore their democracy.” Like the rest of his rant, we have no idea of any specific plans, but hey, we’re there for ya people of Venezuela.

Middle Eastern terrorists:

“The United States and our allies are working together in the Middle East to crush the loser terrorists and stop the re-emergence of safe havens they use to launch attacks on all of our people.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seen applauding that one in particular.

In fact, when it comes to applause for the speech, the assembly room mostly had the feel of a golf event at a Trump course; some congenial applause in a few spots and one part where his script clearly told him to wait for applause, and yet none came. His looking into the crowd, with nothing but deafening silence coming back at him was one of the more awkward moments of a day full of them.

The World Reacts

• The reactions to the speech could have just as easily been given prior to the speech, being as predictable as they were.

Former UN Ambassador and longtime advocate of blowing other countries into non-existence, John Bolton called it the “best speech of the Trump presidency” but says it was unparalleled in the history of the UN.

”This was a bombastic, nationalist speech. It must have been decades since one last heard a speech like that in the U.N. General Assembly. … This was a speech at the wrong time to the wrong audience.” Margot Wallstrom, foreign minister of Sweden.

“The speech was contradictory, mixing expressions of respect for nations’ sovereign rights with a barefaced U.S. pretense to determine who has such rights and who does not.” Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee for Russia.

• Just to make sure his important words were taken as intended, Donald ended the evening by going to Twitter to deal with the truly important.

@realDonaldTrump  10h10 hours ago

“I was saddened to see how bad the ratings were on the Emmys last night – the worst ever. Smartest people of them all are the “DEPLORABLES.”

Indeed, critical words matter.