Trump Slams UN, Europe Over Migration, Climate
US President Donald Trump blasted the United Nations and Europe on his return to the world body Tuesday, warning that Western countries were “going to hell” because of migration and dismissing climate change as a “con job.”
In a blistering speech during his first UN General Assembly appearance since his White House comeback, Trump also accused the world body of failing to help him as he tried to broker a series of peace deals including in Gaza and Ukraine.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” asked Trump in a wide-ranging speech lasting nearly an hour.
“It has such tremendous potential but it’s not even coming close to living up to that,” he said.
Trump’s first speech to the UN back in 2018 saw fellow leaders laughing at the Republican, but this time his full-frontal attack on the global organization and US allies was received in near total silence.
The 79-year-old’s litany of complaints even extended to 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.
Trump’s fieriest words were on migration, as he advised the world to follow his lead on one of the core political messages that drove his two US election victories.
Trump lambasted the UN for “funding an assault” on Western nations that he described as an “invasion,” before training his fire on his supposed allies in Europe.
“Your countries are going to hell,” he told European leaders.
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Trump also criticized the UN for failing to get involved in what he claims are seven wars that he has ended, or in his failed efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.
“All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter. It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war,” he said.
But the US leader later dramatically escalated his rhetoric on Ukraine, saying that NATO nations should shoot down Russian planes violating their territory as he sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the summit.
It was his second meeting with Zelensky since Trump met in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August — a summit that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no progress.
