Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
WATCH: UN is ‘not even coming close’ to its potential, Trump tells General Assembly
Posted
September 23, 2025
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September 23, 2025
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4:01Now PlayingPresident Donald Trump said Tuesday while addressing the United Nations General Assembly that the international body is “not even coming close to living up” to its potential.
“All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up,” the president said. “It's empty words and empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war, and wars, is action.”
The president noted the trade deals his administration has negotiated with other nations. He also repeated his claim that he “ended seven wars.” While Trump has played a role in international events, some of the conflicts he has cited in the past have not been wars or have yet to end.
Trump criticized the UN for what he saw as its lack of action.
“It's too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” he said. “All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle … and then a teleprompter that didn't work.”
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