WASHINGTON — President Trump unloaded on world leaders attending the annual United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, questioning the purpose of the international organization and ripping it for hiding behind “empty words” while underwriting “an assault on Western countries” through mass migration.
In an impassioned, 57-minute address, the commander in chief pointed to his record of closing America’s borders and attempting to usher in global peace — including in Israel, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan — and needled the UN for not giving him a call to iron out the deals.
“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,” Trump said from the rostrum in Turtle Bay.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it, it has such tremendous, tremendous potential, but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential. For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up,” the president went on.
“It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.”
Trump cut off the UN from hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars during his first term — and his administration yanked back $838 million in funding from international peacekeeping forces through a rescissions package that Congress passed in July.
But Americans have still footed the largest bill to the UN of any country for years, forking over $820.3 million — or 22% of the organization’s $3.5 billion regular budget — in fiscal year 2025.
As part of Trump’s shift toward an “America First” foreign policy, the president has also been prodding European allies to increase their own defense spending.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday that EU nations “agreed on the need to cut Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels” to eliminate purchases for good by 2027.
“Europe is speeding up its defence efforts to strengthen its Eastern flank,” she posted on X. “It must act as a shield for both Europe and NATO.”
Trump later issued a dire warning for European nations to follow his lead on the question of migration, saying the continent was in “serious trouble.”
“They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody has seen before. Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe,” he continued.
Trump suggested Europe “control their own borders” and argued that countries should be able to “protect their communities” from migrants with different customs and religions from changing the fabric of their culture.
“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now,” he went on.
While the audience of diplomats had weclomed the American president with good humor and applauded his calls to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the atmosphere grew tense as Trump declared “your countries are going to hell” and blamed the UN for driving illegal migration to the US and other Western nations.
“Your countries are being ruined. The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders,” he seethed.
“In 2024, the UN budgeted $372 million in cash assistance to support an estimated 624,000 migrants journeying into the United States. Think of that,” Trump went on.
“The UN is supporting people that are illegally coming into the United States, and then we have to get them out. The UN also provided food, shelter, transportation and debit cards to illegal aliens.”
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said Trump’s “visionary speech” showed an “unmatched imagination, pure stream-of-consciousness, the rare gift of saying whatever comes to mind, on anything, to anyone.”
“A masterclass for sociology, int’l relations, and political science. Just hardly any law in it,” mocked Albanese, who was sanctioned by the US in July over what Secretary of State Marco Rubio called a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused the president of “embarrassing America at the UN.”
“This is basically MAGA madlibs,” said Ned Price, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s senior adviser. “Trump is speaking to his political base, hitting each of his campaign trail hits, while addressing a room of leaders who’d rather be just about anywhere else.”
David Axelrod, a onetime adviser to former President Barack Obama, also lambasted the address, posting on X: “This U.N. speech of Trump’s is truly historic! And not in a good way.”
Republicans celebrated Trump’s remarks, with Senate GOP Conference Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) calling it “fantastic” and praising the president for “calling out that cesspool.”
Trump’s address followed a pair of technical snafus that he referenced in his speech.
While on his way to deliver the remarks, the escalator that he and first lady Melania Trump were riding stopped working. Moments later, the teleprompter Trump was due to read off of stopped working as he started to talk.
“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up, stopped right in the middle,” he said.
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”
