US President Donald Trump’s return to the United Nations last week in order to address the General Assembly was anything but ordinary.
Dispensing with a teleprompter, he declared he would speak “from the heart”. What followed was not a statesman’s message but a campaign performance that was full of exaggerations, distortions, and imagined triumphs. His words revealed how politics now functions in the post-truth age: where the line between fact and fiction blurs, where assertions replace evidence, and where audiences are asked to embrace narratives that affirm emotions rather than reality.
Post-truth is not simply about lies or fake news. It is about a political method where facts are no longer of the essence and where claims are judged not by whether they are true or at least verifiable but by whether they feel right, entertain, or reinforce a chosen identity for a certain targeted audience.
In this environment, repetition becomes more important than proof, and performance matters more than substance. Trump has mastered this technique. When he says that “America is respected again like never before” or “illegal migration is zero,” accuracy is irrelevant. The applause of his fans is the point. Truth is replaced by spectacle, and politics becomes a theatre of emotion rather than a forum for facts.
Trump presented himself as a peacemaker at the UN, boasting that “we saved millions of lives by ending wars in the Middle East. We brought peace to places where others failed for decades.” Nevertheless, wars continue, and nowhere more brutally than in Palestine.
On Gaza, Trump said that “Hamas must release all the hostages immediately. The killing has to stop. There can be peace.” What he did not say, and what he deliberately erased, was the truth about Israel’s criminal war on Gaza and the Palestinians – the genocide, the forced displacement, the bombardment of homes, hospitals, and schools, the starvation of civilians, and the staggering toll of lives lost.
Trump’s silence highlights a deeper paradox. If we compare Trump’s post-truth strategy with his unconditional support for Israel and its criminal acts, the gap between truth and his claims becomes even wider.
He projects himself as a man of peace while backing policies that perpetuate war and deepen injustice. He speaks of stopping violence while applauding a campaign of systematic destruction. The dissonance is not simply political contradiction; it is the essence of post-truth diplomacy, where words are detached from reality and turned into instruments of allegiance and performance.
Trump has also exported his domestic political strategies to the international arena. Just as he electrifies his US rallies with grievances, bravado, and theatre-like applause lines, he treated the UN podium as if it were a US electoral event. Instead of addressing fellow world leaders as partners in diplomacy, he spoke to them as though they were voters in a campaign rally demanding approval, broadcasting slogans, and ignoring facts.
The General Assembly became a stage for his political acting and an extension of his permanent campaign rather than a forum for serious international dialogue.
The danger of this approach is profound. Diplomacy requires at least a minimal consensus about the facts regarding treaties, borders, alliances, or wars. When a US president claims, as Trump did, that he “ended seven wars” that are still ongoing, or when he asserts that “London has gone to Sharia Law” without a shred of evidence, he corrodes trust not only in Washington’s word but in the very fabric of international relations. Without credible, sensible leadership, the world loses sense and orientation, and confusion prevails.
Nowhere is this more destabilising than in the Middle East. By ignoring Israel’s responsibility for its criminal war on Gaza and the Palestinians, Trump practises post-truth geopolitics at its most destructive level. Atrocities are not denied outright but displaced by alternative stories in which Palestinians are terrorists and Israel is an embattled victim. Such selective blindness does not merely misinform; it legitimises impunity.
For Egypt, the consequences are immediate. Our country has for decades shouldered the role of mediator, seeking ceasefires, humanitarian access, and political dialogue. But this effort requires trust. When the United States embraces post-truth tactics that erase Palestinian suffering while amplifying the Israeli agenda, it directly undermines Cairo’s ability to secure trust on all sides.
Trump’s approach not only targets Egypt’s regional role but also deepens mistrust, hardens positions, and widens the gap between American declarations and lived realities. Egypt cannot build reliable partnerships on illusions and fabrications. If Washington truly wants to be a credible partner in regional diplomacy, it must abandon post-truth performances and return to an international politics grounded in facts, honesty, and accountability. Only then will the United States find itself trusted not just by Egypt, but by the broader Arab world.
It is worth remembering that world public opinion and political leaders are not an electorate that is obliged to applaud whatever Trump thinks, says, or does. Unlike his rallies in the United States, the international community is not bound to his narrative. Leaders and societies across the globe can see the dissonance between his claims and the facts on the ground. Many reject the attempt to erase Palestinian suffering or to turn the UN into a stage for domestic political theatre. This resistance underscores a fundamental truth: in world politics, credibility cannot be manufactured through slogans.
Trump’s UN appearance was therefore a hollow triumph. He entertained, polarised, and projected strength. But by treating the world stage as a campaign rally, he weakened diplomacy and minimal trust in the US and in its world leadership role. By erasing Israel’s responsibility in its criminal war on Gaza and the Palestinians, he undermined the pursuit of peace. By inflating achievements and inventing victories, he made credibility itself a casualty.
Credibility built on truth is not a luxury in world politics. It is the very foundation of negotiation, trust, and peace. When world leaders abandon it, the result is not only confusion but probably also conflict. In a world where reality itself is contested, the loudest voice, not the truest claim, risks defining the future. That is a path the international system and Egypt’s indispensable regional role within it can ill afford.
The writer is a lecturer in global studies.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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