With a speech that broke the most basic rules of diplomacy, U.S. President Donald Trump used the U.N. General Assembly podium to promote himself as peacemaker-in-chief — solving wars that the U.N. is incapable of ending, he stressed — and as the statesman who has restored the U.S. to a golden age. He also cast himself as the scourge of anything that smacks of multilateralism, including sustainable development, one of the organization’s stated goals.
Trump’s address went far beyond the allotted speaking time, which is enforced down to the minute for other world leaders, but in his case no one dared to stop him: the red warning light never came on. In his remarks, the Republican began with jokes and quips before quickly lashing out at the world order, the U.N.’s role and effectiveness, and even the direction of its member states, warning of the “death of Western Europe” from migration.
“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” he declared. “Your countries are going to hell.” He accused the U.N. — without evidence — of financing waves of migrants to cross illegally into the United States.
His government, he said, “has taken bold action to swiftly shut down uncontrolled migration,” contrasting the U.S. with what he described as Europe’s lost cause, citing dubious statistics to denounce the heavy presence of foreigners in German and Austrian prisons. By contrast, El Salvador — turned by Trump into a kind of outsourced jail — received special praise for “jailing so many criminals” who had been in the U.S. illegally and were deported in recent months.
Trump veered off script when his teleprompter malfunctioned, improvising while also joking about the Assembly Hall’s broken escalators — both technical failures, he said, that underscored the U.N.’s dysfunction. He quipped that the problems could have been solved years ago had the organization awarded his construction company the contract to renovate its facilities. That real estate reference, from a president who knows more about dollars than diplomacy, set the tone for a marathon speech — four times longer than those of other leaders.
Ahead of his speech, a White House spokeswoman said that Trump would talk about “how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” but that proved to be an understatement. Trump did not deny the U.N.’s potential, at least, although he joked that all it does is “write a really strongly-worded letter and then never follow that letter up.” “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.” For that reason, he added, “everyone” is asking that he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — though in an unusual note of modesty, he concluded: “What I care about is not winning prizes, it’s saving lives.”
Complaints against the United Kingdom and Brazil
Trump’s speech was a cascade of grievances — from immigration “ruining” the United Kingdom to the political persecution in Brazil of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a close ally. But he offered no vision of what the U.N. should be eight decades after its founding; instead, he aimed straight at the organization to discredit it. “I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he said, blaming that decline on immigration, which he boasted he alone had managed to stop. Trump also boasted that his tariffs are “a defense mechanism” to protect the U.S. economy, in a world where “trade must be fair and reciprocal.”
One of his few gestures of cooperation toward the U.N. was the announcement that his administration would lead an international effort to enforce the Biological Weapons Convention through the creation of an AI-based verification system. “I’m calling on every nation to join us in ending the development of biological weapons once and for all,” he said. “Hopefully, the U.N. can play a constructive role.”
Trump opened his speech as if he were addressing Congress — or simply a rally: attacking his predecessor, Joe Biden; his political opponents; and NATO allies who have recognized the Palestinian state, which he said amounted to a reward “too great for Hamas terrorists.”
“Now, as if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists for their atrocities. This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities,” said Trump.
On Gaza, he repeated his demand for the release of the hostages — “we want all 20 back” — but made no mention of Israel’s offensive to seize Gaza City or his own past promises of humanitarian aid for the enclave. Among the tepid applause in the hall, the Israeli ambassador’s voices could be heard.
Questioning the usefulness of the United Nations for not helping him achieve his stated goal of ending wars worldwide — “what is the purpose of the United Nations?” he asked — he claimed credit for having ended seven wars since January, in many cases through fragile truces. “It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them, and sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them. I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” he complained, in a mix of grievance and self-congratulation.
On Ukraine, he demanded that European countries stop buying gas and oil from Russia in order to bring the war to an end. “They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It’s embarrassing to them, and it was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it,” he declared.
The Republican showed particular fixation on energy. After railing against renewables, he praised Germany for returning to nuclear power and fossil fuels. “All green is bankrupt,” he said.
Veering off script again, he devoted 10 minutes to the “global warming hoax,” celebrating the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and extolling “clean, beautiful coal,” using his trademark pair of adjectives for everything. On U.S. energy exports, he added: “The United States has been taken advantage by much of the world, but not anymore.” He included Europe in that warning, saying he “loved” it but cautioning Brussels that immigration and an “energy catastrophe” were undermining its survival.
If the U.N. survived Trump’s address, it can survive anything. Marco Rubio, the head of America’s — supposedly — diplomacy, had hinted that Trump would have fiery words for the U.N. in an interview with Fox News just a few hours before the president took the podium. “You can anticipate the president will point to his own history with the U.N. going back to his time here as a developer, where he actually offered to fix the U.N. building, and instead they decided to go in another direction, wasted a bunch of money, and really didn’t achieve on the building’s perspective, what needed to happen,” Rubio told the Fox & Friends panel. “I think it’s emblematic of how feckless the U.N. has become as an organization.”
Trump amplified and improvised on his devastating U.N. speech on the fly, addressing a stunned audience with no opportunity to protest, as he blatantly ignored even the most basic rules of diplomacy
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