Jeff Sachs Warns "Nuclear War is a Real Threat" as Trump Threatens to "Totally Destroy" North Korea

This is an excerpt from the transcript of this interview with Jeffrey Sachs on Democracy Now!:

On Tuesday, President Trump gave his first address to the United Nations General Assembly, boasting about the size of the U.S. military and threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea. "[N]uclear war is a real threat," says Jeffrey Sachs, leading economist and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. "It’s not some idle imagination right now. You have two leaders—both seem unstable—yelling at each other. Both have nuclear arms."

NERMEEN SHAIKH: President Trump gave his first address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, boasting about the size of the U.S. military, threatening to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, hinting at an intervention in Venezuela and threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea. The 40-minute speech was reportedly written by Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, and did not call out other authoritarian countries that are U.S. allies, including Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In his sharpest of many threats, Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man" and said the U.S. was prepared to destroy an entire nation of 25 million people.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States has great strength and patience. But if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.

AMY GOODMAN: North Korea’s ambassador walked out of the U.N. General Assembly just as Trump took the podium. Iran’s government condemned Trump’s remarks as "shameless and ignorant," while the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, said from Caracas Trump is the "new Hitler" of international politics. This is Jorge Arreaza, Venezuela’s chancellor to the United Nations.

JORGE ARREAZA: This is supposed to be the house and the headquarters of the peace and the international law. And what we heard was the opposite of that. It’s a president who comes for the first time and speaks about war, about destroying countries, about blockades against countries.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Venezuela’s foreign minister.

For more, we’re joined by Jeffrey Sachs, university professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Professor Sachs is a leading economist, author of many books, including Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair, and Sustainable. The book’s foreword is by Bernie Sanders.

Professor Sachs, welcome back to Democracy Now!

JEFFREY SACHS: Thanks a lot.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you were there at the time that President Trump gave his first U.N. address before the General Assembly. Start with North Korea and take it from there.

JEFFREY SACHS: Horrifying. Of course, there was a shudder in the room. No president of the United States has declared from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly that the U.S. is ready to totally destroy a country. It was absolutely shocking. And the whole speech was grotesque, in my view.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

JEFFREY SACHS: Because it was militaristic. It was filled with grievance, with bias, with ignorance. Trump is a very dangerous man. There’s no question about it. He individually a very dangerous man, and the United States right now is a very dangerous country.

Please continue reading this transcript, or to watch the full video interview, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/21/jeff_sachs_warns_nuclear_war_is