The French president’s resolve seems to have rubbed off on the leaders of other ‘middle powers’

On the first day of the United Nations general assembly this week, two world leaders outlined competing visions for the future. Donald Trump’s speech was disturbingly similar to those he’s given before: a litany of false boasts and odd tangents, peppered with grim military threats against a variety of nation states. Discussing his seven-month war with Iran, he mused over whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”.

In Trump’s eyes, the world is there to be ruled – and ruled only by the US, whose economy is “the envy of the world” and military is “the most powerful on Earth”.

Steve Bloomfield is the former international editor of the Observer