President Trump Blasts UN Over Immigration, Climate in Combative Speech (Full)

US President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations assembly as they convene their 80th meeting in New York City. He speaks about the US economy, progress on global trade deals, and immigration and energy policy.

President Donald Trump assailed the United Nations and other countries in a grievance-laden speech that accused the world body of offering nothing but “empty words,” labeled climate change a “con job” and warned open borders risked destroying nations.

Setting aside calls for unity, Trump began his speech to the UN General Assembly by venting his frustration that the UN hadn’t done more to support his diplomatic efforts. He faulted the organization over an escalator that broke down just as First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto it, said his teleprompter had broken down and ruminated on a two-decade-old grudge over his rejected bid to renovate the UN headquarters.

“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,” Trump said Tuesday. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations — a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter, thank you very much.”

Americans accustomed to the US president’s discursive speeches would find much familiar in the address, which ran for nearly an hour. But foreign leaders not inured to Trump’s attacks witnessed a combative leader who heaped himself with praise while repeatedly violating unwritten UN protocol of not criticizing other countries by name.

He faulted the UK and Germany over green-energy policies, and Greece and Switzerland for allowing in immigrants. He blasted Brazil for what he said was censorship and repression. “Your countries are going to hell,” he said.

Trump cast his crackdown on migrants as a humanitarian effort because it kept people from enduring violence and death in the effort to enter the US. He touted a hat sold by his campaign that reads: “Trump was right about everything.”

“I don’t say that in a braggadocious way, but it’s true — I’ve been right about everything,” he said.

In keeping with past speeches, he swept aside some of the UN’s most cherished ideas, including the desire to combat climate change, which he called “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” and protect asylum seekers.

Trump’s far more aggressive approach has rankled other members of the UN, not least because he has shown so little consideration to it. He’s withdrawn the US from bodies such as UNESCO and the Human Rights Council, and just as he did in his first term, walked away from the World Health Organization.

The US has all but stopped paying its bills to the United Nations since Trump took office in January and still has outstanding arrears from 2024, according to the organization. And he’s implemented a far more restrictive visa policy, barring Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from attending this week’s General Assembly session and imposing new limits on Iranian diplomats.

But Trump also showed flashes of his trademark humor. He announced from the rostrum that he’d run into Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country he criticized several times, and the two had agreed to meet.

“He seemed like a very nice man, actually. He liked me, I liked him,” Trump said. “At least for about 39 seconds we had excellent chemistry, it’s a good sign.”

Trump reserved his sharpest attacks for other countries’ immigration policies and for UN support for asylum seekers. Trump accused the UN of “funding an assault on western countries and their borders,” citing efforts to provide aid to migrants.

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