President Trump Meets with French President; Trump at United Nations; NYT: Trump Lawyers Overheard Talking About Russia Probe.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump once mocked the U.N. as a club that just likes to talk. Well, welcome to the club, Mr. President. THE LEAD starts right now. President Trump making his first ever visit to the U.N. General Assembly and asking the world body he has trolled in the past for help controlling Kim Jong-un. Dangerous deja vu. Another major hurricane now getting more powerful by the second and heading for U.S. territory. Plus, it's taking aim at islands that Irma just pulverized. Plus, a heartbreaking, eye-opening look at the opioid crisis in America. How addiction is crippling a generation of kids, leaving grandparents and foster families caring for the children left behind. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We're going to begin today with our world lead. America first meets the United Nations. With foreign policy crises looming, President Trump began his first ever U.N. General Assembly by taking a critical tone at the annual gathering of world leaders in New York City, saying the United Nations has not reached its full potential and telling CNN he wants to make the U.N. great. Not great again. Just great. Mr. Trump has long been a critic of the international body. Today, he said no one nation should shoulder too much of the military or financial burden on its own. And, of course, he also took the opportunity to tout Trump World Tower, which is across the street. CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny is at the U.N. for us right now. Jeff, President Trump spoke this afternoon with two world leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and French President Macron, but tomorrow is the big event. He is going to address the world. Do you have any idea what message he will try to deliver?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's certainly a chance for President Trump to fill in more of the blanks are the still-evolving Trump doctrine. Tomorrow's chapter I'm told begins with North Korea.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The main message is make the United Nations great. Not again. Make the United Nations great.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): President Trump striking a familiar tone at the United Nations today in his first visit since taking office. With foreign policy challenges rising in North Korea and Iran, the president started with the message to reform the</s>U.N. TRUMP: We encourage all member states to look at ways to take bold stands at the United Nations with an eye toward changing business as usual, and not being beholden to ways of the past, which were not working.</s>ZELENY: But his words today far more measured than on the campaign trail, when he blasted the U.N. as a bloated bureaucracy.</s>TRUMP: The United Nations is not a friend of democracy. It's not a friend to freedom. It's not a friend even to the United States of America, where, as you know, it has its home.</s>ZELENY: He even criticized the iconic emerald backdrop, where he will stand Tuesday in first address to the U.N. General Assembly, once saying on Twitter: "The cheap 12-inch square marble tiles behind speaker at U.N. always bothered me. I will replace with beautiful large marble slabs if they ask me." But today far more pressing challenges sit on Trump's desk, a stand- off with North Korea and the Iran nuclear agreement hop atop the list of global flash points. The president is meeting with a parade of world leaders this week, starting today with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.</s>TRUMP: We are going to be discussing many things. Among them, peace between the Palestinians and Israel will be a fantastic achievement. And we are giving it an absolute go.</s>ZELENY: The U.N. summit offers a chance for world leaders to take Mr. Trump's measure and to shower him with praise, as Netanyahu did today.</s>BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Under your leadership, the alliance between America and Israel has never been stronger, never been deeper.</s>ZELENY: Chinese President Xi Jinping is not attending the U.N. summit this week, but spoke to Mr. Trump by phone today. The White House said the two leaders committed to maximizing pressure on North Korea through vigorous enforcement of United Nations Security Council resolutions. North Korea's nuclear threat is one of the biggest reasons the president is taking a softer approach to the United Nations. He lives only blocks away, but today made a rare trip to U.N. headquarters, a place he has not believed to have visited often since this stop in 2001. The real estate mogul in Trump came through the moment he arrived in the towering building today.</s>TRUMP: I actually saw great potential right across the street.</s>ZELENY: Trump World Tower, the president said, became a successful project because of its proximity to the U.N.</s>ZELENY: Jake, that is just one example of suddenly the president, after criticizing and blasting the United Nations for so long before he ran for president and while running for president, now suddenly needs the U.N., particularly the Security Council, in sanctions on North Korea. He will be talking about that specifically tomorrow when he addresses the world tomorrow morning before the United Nations General Assembly -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny at the U.N. for us. And as Jeff just said, a top priority not just for the president, but world leaders in general is of course trying to figure out what to do about a North Korea with nuclear weapons. It's a threat belied by the nickname for Kim Jong-un that President Trump just bestowed upon him on Twitter, Rocket Man. CNN chief security national correspondent Jim Sciutto is also live for us at the U.N. Jim, some world leaders say time is running out for diplomacy with North Korea. What are they hoping to achieve this week?</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Jake, it may be simply to keep talking. As Jeff said, this a president, an American president who has derided, even dismissed the U.N. as an investigation, both during the campaign and since his inauguration. But since then, he's come to rely on the U.N. Security Council in particular to deliver the economic sanctions which are a key part of the U.S. strategy to contain North Korea. That said, more and more, particularly in the last 24 hours, you have senior administration officials saying that diplomacy may have run its course.</s>REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the U.N. Security Council resolutions really speak for themselves.</s>SCIUTTO (voice-over): After a unanimous Security Council vote to tighten economic sanctions on the North, Trump administration officials say their patience for diplomacy is running short.</s>NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We wanted to be responsible and go through all diplomatic means to get their attention first. If that doesn't work, General Mattis will take care of it.</s>SCIUTTO: Those military options range from limited strikes on North Korean launch sites to more comprehensive decapitation strikes intended to knock out North Korea's leaders.</s>TILLERSON: If our diplomatic efforts fail, though, our military option will be the only one left. We have said from the beginning we don't have a lot of time left.</s>SCIUTTO: Any military strike, however, involves enormous potential human costs, including devastating threats to civilians and U.S. service members in the South Korean capital, Seoul, a fact that the U.S. Army chief of staff made clear today with allies.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's absolutely critical that we all, every one of our countries, does everything humanly possible in the months ahead to avert an armed conflict and convince North Korea that their path of seeking nuclear weapons is the wrong path.</s>SCIUTTO: U.S. and South Korean forces are ramming up preparations. The U.S., South Korea and Japan conducted a show of force with bombers and fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula and continuing drills with ground forces. China and Russia beginning naval drills as well.</s>SCIUTTO: Just a short time ago, Defense Secretary James Mattis said, when asked by reporters, that there are military options that do not put the heavily populated South Korean capital, Seoul, at risk. He did not offer any details. We do know, Jake, among the many options on the table are cyber-attacks in addition to military strikes. In addition, Defense Secretary Mattis said -- and this is a remarkable public revelation -- that the U.S. and South Korea have discussed at least the option of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Wow. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. Just when you thought it was dead, Republicans reviving the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. No, this isn't a rerun of THE LEAD you're watching -- what is in this bill and what it might mean for your health insurance needs. Stick around.