A U.N. Downgrade

Two days ago we wrote about the Heather Nauert appointment to be U.N. ambassador, the successor to Nikki Haley. Today comes a Politico  magazine article which, while reflecting disapproval of the Nauert appointment, does say worthwhile things about the Trump strategy vis-a-vis the U.N. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.

Just last week during a speech in Brussels, Pompeo dismissed the U.N.—along with a host of other multilateral organizations—as excessively bureaucratic, biased against Israel and committed to some sort of secretive global wealth redistribution scheme. Bolton has been making similar points for decades.

The more the U.S. can use its influence in the U.N. to stop the organization from functioning, the more Washington can prod other powers to deal with it on American terms. Haley’s great strategic mistake, at least according to the hawks’ logic, may have been to make the U.N. work too well. So, while Nauert is said not to be a hard-line anti-multilateralist herself, she could end up as a sort of diplomatic spoiler-in-chief in New York.

More tart-tongued anti-diplomacy at the U.N.? Just what the doctor ordered. Rumor has it the new U.N. ambassador will lose the cabinet status predecessors had.