US President Donald Trump relentlessly mocked the United Nations on Tuesday 23 September in his first address since his White House comeback, blasting it for failing to bring peace and claiming the world body encourages illegal migration. In his return to the UN General Assembly podium, Trump accused the UN of fostering an "assault" through migration on Western countries that he said were "going to hell". He likewise used the major forum to denounce efforts to reduce global warming, calling climate change concerns "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world". Trump also lashed out at European allies, as well as China and India, for failing to stop oil purchases from Russia, while remaining relatively restrained on Moscow even as he said Washington was ready to impose unspecified sanctions.
"What is the purpose of the United Nations?" asked Trump. "All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter," he said. "It's empty words, and empty words don't solve war".
The 79-year-old president even complained about a broken escalator and teleprompter at the New York headquarters of the UN, which he has repeatedly targeted during both of his presidential terms. "These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter," he said.
Touting what he said were his efforts to end seven wars, Trump turned to two where his outreach has produced no results – Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack. He called recognition by a slate of Washington's allies of a Palestinian state a "reward" to armed group Hamas for "horrible atrocities" and urged the group to release hostages to reach peace.
Some of his strongest language was reserved for migration as he lambasted the UN for "funding an assault" on Western nations. "It's time to end the failed experiment of open borders," Trump said. "Your countries are going to hell," he said, also attacking London's Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital. Trump's second term has opened with a blaze of nationalist policies curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.
He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organisation and the UN climate pact, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.
Opening the annual summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that aid cuts led by the United States were "wreaking havoc" in the world. "What kind of world will we choose? A world of raw power – or a world of laws?" Guterres said.
President Trump also on said Tuesday that he believed Ukraine could win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader’s repeated calls for Kyiv to make concessions to end the war. Trump posted on social media soon after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
“I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote. “With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.”
The strengthened support from Trump, if it sticks, is a departure from Trump’s previous suggestions that Ukraine would never be able to reclaim all the territory that Russia has occupied since seizing the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
