Most national leader speeches to the UN are boring homilies. They praise themselves, pay due respect to the UN and expound upon what Miss Congeniality says in all beauty contests: “World peace!”

What we got instead from Trump was raw and edged: “America’s policy of principled realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited ideologies and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the years, time and time again.”

That statement made a powerful indictment of “experts”, because his supporters feel that it is the elites that have run the country for 70 years who have let them down.

If America is doing so well economically, militarily and technologically, why should its middle class feel so insecure?

In short, it is all about anti-globalism: “We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism…” Trump said. “The passion that burns in the hearts of patriots and the souls of nations has inspired reform and revolution, sacrifice and selflessness, scientific breakthroughs and magnificent works of art.”

Never mind if a lot of that sacrifice and selflessness was by immigrants and new arrivals.

Tech giants under pressure from Trump tariffs

Outsiders who used to admire America as an open society founded by immigrants with new ideas on how to build a more just society and free economy find instead one with an increasingly closed mind to global issues.

The irony of America drawing on global talent and resources is that it has no need to pay for it from exports, but can easily print more dollars.

In other words, the grand bargain of global trade was the ability of the US to pay for real goods and services with something that can be printed at near zero marginal cost.

Even the Europeans are now creating a separate payment system outside the US dollar-dominated SWIFT system to avoid being punished for “trading with the enemy”.

When contracts of trust are being renegotiated, no one can feel at ease. One can never solve global problems unilaterally or even bilaterally, let alone with calls for more national patriotism.

And as the English writer Samuel Johnson scribbled in 1775, a year before the US declared independence from Britain, “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.

Leadership has always been about generosity to those who are less well-off. Often, it is not generosity of kind, because that would mean buying votes, but generosity of spirit.

This side of the Pacific, there is awareness that the tensions will not go away with a change in the November elections. The US establishment has put political interests ahead of economic interests, which means that any settlement will have to go beyond economic considerations.

If trade and political tensions are in for the long haul, can the current US market enthusiasm display sufficient strategic patience? Now we understand why no one should be laughing.

Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective