Two weeks before he was unleashed on the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump gave a speech in Bismarck, North Dakota, supposedly to outline his plans on tax reform.  (A quick aside for the historically-minded: Bismarck is named after the Iron Chancellor who invented realpolitik and Germany.  Could there be a starker contrast?)

The new President of the United States believes that ‘torture works.’  Or rather, with his unremitting bombast, ‘absolutely torture works.’ He bases this not on any empirical evidence (which all points the other way) but on the same kind of fact-free ugly-gut faux-hard-man reaction that has led him to claim that climate change is a Chinese hoax, that his election victory would have been more impressive if millions had not voted illegally, and that his inauguration attracted the biggest audience ever.  Period.  Ever.