The Brief
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Trump warned Europe that immigration is “destroying your heritage.”
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He called climate change a “con job” and slammed green energy.
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He threatened drug traffickers, demanded Hamas free hostages, and blasted the U.N. as ineffective.
NEW YORK – President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations Tuesday to deliver a speech on his second-term foreign policy achievements.
Trump has already reduced U.S. support for the U.N. since his latest inauguration. He withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and ended participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council. Global leaders are also dealing with wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan and concerns about artificial intelligence.
What did Trump say at the U.N.?
What they’re saying
Trump warns Europe immigration is ‘destroying your heritage’
Trump called immigration and policies confronting climate change a “double-tailed monster” that’s ruining Europe. His rhetoric was especially harsh on what he called “the unmitigated immigration disaster.”
Here’s what he said: “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail. I’m the president of the United States, but I worry about Europe. I love Europe, I love the people of Europe. And I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake.”
Then he directly addressed European leaders: “You’re doing it because you want to be nice. You want to be politically correct, and you’re destroying your heritage.”
The president scoffed at past predictions on climate change
Trump urged European countries to abandon green energy initiatives, scoffing that, in decades past, some experts predicted that by the year 2000 “climate change will cause a global catastrophe.”
He said scientists predicted some nations might be “wiped off the map” by now, but insisted that’s “not happening.”
Actually, climate change has indeed triggered rising sea levels and intensifying storms that have caused small island nations to shrink. Such phenomenon has also cost enormous sums of money for disaster response, cleanup and rebuilding in the U.S. and around the world.
Nonetheless, Trump insisted it was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world in my opinion.”
He said “all of these predictions were wrong” and “made by stupid people,” adding, “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
Trump points to US boat bombing and warns drug traffickers of more
Trump is unapologetic about authorizing the bombing of two boats U.S. officials said were carrying drugs, despite bipartisan criticism that the U.S. military actions violated the law.
“Let’s put it this way: People don’t like to take big loads of drugs in boats anymore,” he said, promising more attacks if he deems it necessary.
“Please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said after the two attacks that U.S. officials said killed 14 people.
Many Democrats and some Republicans have questioned Trump’s policy as a potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.
Trump lectures the world on immigration policy
“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now. I can tell you, I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” Trump proclaimed.
It was a lot of bravado on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly — even for a leader who’s built his political career on public boasts.
Trump has launched a crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border and pushed hardline domestic immigration policies.
“Once we started detaining and deporting everyone who crossed the border — and removing illegal aliens from the United States — they simply stopped coming,” he said.
The president called his efforts a “humanitarian act,” arguing that it saved people who might have otherwise died trying to cross the U.S. border illegally.
Trump threatens Russia sanctions but says Europe must join in
Trump threatened to hit Russia with “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” if Putin doesn’t come to the table to end its war in Ukraine.
He claimed that would “stop the bloodshed .. very quickly” but also suggested fighting will not end as long as China and European nations continue buying Russian energy.
“They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?” Trump said.
Trump tells Hamas to release all hostages now
Trump demanded on Tuesday that Hamas immediately release all hostages living and dead that it’s holding in Gaza, saying the time for partial releases is over.
Speaking to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump also criticized several European nations, including U.S. allies, for recognizing a Palestinian state, which he called a reward to Hamas for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel that sparked the current conflict.
“As if to encourage continued conflict, some in this body seek to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including October 7th. But instead of giving in to Hamas as ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message: release the hostages now.”
“Just release the hostages now.”
Trump blasts UN as being filled with ‘empty words’ and not helping end wars
Standing in front of top U.N. officials, before more than 150 world leaders, Trump blasted the international organization. He said they didn’t reach out to him on the various wars he says he has brought to a conclusion.
“I’ve always said the U.N. has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” Trump said. “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. It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve war.”
U.N. chief warns world leaders
The other side
With global peace and progress under siege, the United Nations chief challenged world leaders Tuesday to choose a future where the rule of law triumphs over raw power and where nations come together rather than scramble for self-interests.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N.’s founders faced the same questions 80 years ago, but he told today’s world leaders at the opening of their annual gathering at the General Assembly that the choice of peace or war, law or lawlessness, cooperation or conflict, is “more urgent, more intertwined, more unforgiving.”
“We have entered in an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering,” he said in his annual “state of the World” speech. “The pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality and indifference.”
But despite all the internal and external challenges facing the U.N., he and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock pleaded with its members not to give up. “If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.
Guterres said the leaders’ first obligation is to choose peace, and without naming any countries, he urged all parties — including those in the Assembly chamber – to stop supporting Sudan’s warring parties.
What is the United Nations?
Why you should care
The United Nations, which emerged from World War II’s rubble on the premise that nations would work together to tackle political, social and financial issues, is in crisis itself. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week: “International cooperation is straining under pressures unseen in our lifetimes.”
Yet the annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will bring presidents, prime ministers and monarchs from about 150 of the 193 U.N. member nations to U.N. headquarters. The secretary-general says it is an opportunity that can’t be missed — even in the most challenging of moments.
The Source
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.