Elton John was center stage at the United Nations this week as President Trump branded the North Korean dictator, Kim Jung Un, "rocket man" for his hobby of firing missiles all over the North Pacific region.

Mr. John, of course, had a hit song called "Rocket Man" in 1972.

Almost immediately after the rocket-man reference, the anti-Trump brigades feigned outrage.  How dare the leader of the free world call a cruel despot "rocket man?" The newspaper Newsday said Mr. Trump was "taunting" Kim and the words were "startling."

No word yet from Kim, whom I assume is a big Elton guy. I may be wrong.

Anyway, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told the press that the president used the pop-song reference to bring attention to the North Korean situation.

If that's really why he did it -- it worked. And considering what Mr. Trump has called other people, from crooked Hillary to Little Marco, "rocket man" doesn't really sound all that bad.

But what really irked the left-wing forces was the president's threat to "totally destroy" North Korea if it attacks the USA or its allies.

Hillary Clinton called Trump's speech "very dark, dangerous."

In response, Donald Trump tweeted: "After allowing North Korea to research and build nukes while Secretary of State, crooked Hillary criticizes."

Boy, if we could ever get these two together on "Dancing with the Stars," the ratings would go higher than Kim's rockets.

The truth is that Barack Obama did next to nothing about North Korea for eight years and Hillary Clinton was a part of that inaction. I mean, the most damaging thing the Obama administration did to Kim was allow Dennis Rodman to visit him.

President Obama's general solution to problems abroad was to take a long lunch. Kim knew it, the Iranian Mullahs knew it, and so did the ISIS savages.

Now, the new American president is telling the world that aggression will be met with aggression and there will be nothing passive about it.

To the Yoko Ono give-peace-a-chance crowd, that policy is horrifying. To the anti-Trump press, it's just another example of bad policy. Incredibly, ABC News correspondent Terry Moran said this: "The words 'totally destroying' a nation of 25 million people, that borders on the threat of committing a war crime."

Fortunately, many Americans now know that negative overstatements about the president are meaningless and generally mean-spirited. Incisive analysis about the Trump administration is harder to find than a Porterhouse steak in North Korea.

When thinking about the very real threat from North Korea, people the world over should fully understand how brutal the Kim Jung Un regime really is. They should also understand that this danger has been in play for decades.

Mr. Trump's UN speech announced to the world that the "tough action will be taken" card belongs on the table.

And that's where it is right now.