Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know.

President Donald Trump generated mocking headlines and news stories around the world this past week as he turned his speech before the United Nations General Assembly into a laundry list of complaints and insults about the venerable global institution.

Sometimes yelling, Trump told U.N. representatives that their countries were “going to hell” and groused about malfunctions of his teleprompter and the U.N. building’s escalator. Trump’s allies on Fox News openly pondered bombing or “maybe gas” in response to the escalator problems.

As strange as Trump’s behavior was, it was largely in line with the antagonistic position Republicans an

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