Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us.

President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly this morning in New York City,

and he made it clear he's not the biggest fan of the organization.

What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential.

I've always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it's not even coming close

to living up to that potential. For the most part, at least for now,

all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that

letter up.

Trump has pulled the United States out of several global groups, including many UN organizations

and the administration has slashed funding for global development.

And this is giving one country in particular a big opportunity. Of course, that's China.

So here to make us smart about these shifting global power dynamics is Joshua Eisenman,

Professor of Politics at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

Professor, welcome to the show. That's great to be with you, Kimberly. So what did you think of the

president's speech this morning? Well, you know, I think it's part of a pattern, right? It's not

surprising. This administration has been quite clear, right?

They cut USAID, they cut the U.S. Institute of Peace.

They cut the Wilson Center.

They cut the International Republican Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy,

the National Democratic Institute.

I mean, they've cut tens of millions of dollars in government grants,

which had sustained an ecosystem of

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