Nikki Haley Is Either Good at Irony or Oblivious to Her Surroundings

For the month of September, the United States will assume the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, and on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced the brilliant theme for America’s month at the helm: corruption!

“We will host the Security Council’s first meeting devoted to how corruption affects global conflicts,” Haley said at a Tuesday press conference, saying this meeting will be held on September 10. She continued:

We treat corruption too often as an afterthought when it comes to peace and security. We’ll address corruption as a cross-cutting issue that undermines peace and stability in crises around the world…our goal is to show that corruption is actually a fundamental cause of conflict that the [Security] Council should be addressing.

Yep, that’s right. The same federal government helmed by Donald Trump—a man whose former campaign manager was found guilty of eight felonies a few weeks ago, whose longtime lawyer pleaded guilty to eight felonies the same day, whose first and second endorsers in Congress have both been indicted on corruption-related charges, and whose Cabinet has been rife with corruption—is now fully prepared to teach other countries about why corruption is actually bad.

Aside from waxing poetic about corruption, Haley is already wielding significant power with the United States’ position at the head of the UNSC this month. Because American reactionaries never learn, Haley is attempting to press the council to directly confront the socialist Nicaraguan government after protests turned violent this year, with Haley arguing that the UN doing nothing could result in destabilization in the region. Haley also said during the press conference that the U.S. will host a meeting on Venezuela too, because of course it is.

Haley also announced Trump himself will chair a Security Council meeting on Iran later this month, when the UN holds its General Assembly. And according to UN Dispatch editor Mark Leon Goldberg, this means that Trump could very well personally face Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in person at the meeting, so it looks like we’re going to get our usual fill of Trump being completely embarrassed by a world leader.

President Rouhani, my man, if you’re as big of a fan of Splinter as your predecessor and reading this right now: ask him about Scott Pruitt.