U.S. President Donald Trump on the 23rd (local time) took the United Nations General Assembly podium for the first time in six years. A forum where world leaders gather to discuss global cooperation turned into Trump's personal campaign stage. He spent the entire speech criticizing the U.N. as "incompetent." On core global issues such as climate change and immigration policy, he called them "a con job" and "a disaster." The General Assembly hall, filled with representatives from many countries, fell silent at a speech that openly distrusted multilateralism and pushed "America First." Major foreign media said Trump's even darker worldview was on display and warned of upheaval in the future international order.
On the 23rd, at the keynote address of the 80th U.N. General Assembly held at U.N. headquarters in New York, President Trump unleashed sharp criticism for 56 minutes against the U.N., allies, and international norms. The political outlet Politico said, "It sounded like a rally speech at a 'Make America Great Again (MAGA)' event." The world leaders who burst into laughter at his speech six years ago this time sat in silence with grim expressions.
From the start, Trump questioned the very reason for the U.N.'s existence. He claimed he had ended seven conflicts. He then said, "The U.N. was not there." He argued that the U.N., the largest intergovernmental alliance in human history, did nothing to help resolve conflicts. He asked, "What is the purpose of the U.N.?" and answered himself, "All the U.N. does is strongly criticize on paper and then wash its hands of follow-up," adding, "Empty words do not end wars."
He did not hide personal grievances either. During the speech, he said the event teleprompter and the building escalator had broken and sneered, "The two things I got from the U.N. are a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter." He even recalled his past as a real estate developer, when he bid and lost on a project to remodel the U.N. headquarters building. "I promised to lay down a marble floor, but they ended up using cheap, low-quality materials (terrazzo)," he said, criticizing, "They spent billions of dollars and still seem not to have finished the work." Time, citing experts, analyzed that Trump did not view the U.N. General Assembly speech as a diplomatic stage to persuade world leaders or forge cooperation, but used it as a political performance aimed at his supporters in the United States.
Trump also directly attacked climate change and immigration, the biggest issues on the global agenda. He called climate change response efforts "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world." He derided wind turbines as "pathetic" and dismissed the concept of a carbon footprint as "nonsense." He warned world leaders, "If you do not break away from this 'green energy scam,' your countries will fail."
On immigration, he took direct aim at Europe. "Two twin monsters, energy and immigration, are destroying Europe," he said, arguing, "You are destroying your heritage because you want to be politically correct." He then did not hesitate to hurl insults at world leaders, saying, "Your countries are going to hell."
The BBC in the United Kingdom said the remarks "most rawly reveal what Trumpism is" and called them "an attack on multilateralism and globalism." Trump also said the U.N. was aiding migrants crossing the U.S. southern border, adding, "The U.N. should stop invasions, not promote them." Claiming that his hard-line border policies had reduced illegal entry to "zero," he warned, "If you enter the United States illegally, you will go to jail or go back to where you came from."
In a speech that lasted nearly an hour, Trump briefly cited Korea as a case of successful trade negotiations. "My administration has concluded historic trade deals in succession with numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia," he said. He did not mention North Korea.
In this speech, Trump again revealed his unpredictable diplomatic style. Immediately after unleashing invective throughout the address, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. There, Trump reversed his previous position. On social media, he wrote that Ukraine is in a position to "fight and WIN" to regain all its territory within its original borders. The stance contrasts with last month, when he pressured Zelenskyy to accept peace terms offered by the Russian side. At the same time, he urged European allies to "stop buying Russian energy, and if Russian aircraft violate your airspace, shoot them down."
Experts said Trump's diplomacy clearly showed that it operates strictly according to personal relationships and domestic political interests rather than international norms or alliances. The BBC called Trump's shift to a more critical stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin a "notable journey," but added, "Given that the remarks came right after meeting Zelenskyy, it is hard to take them at face value."
His binary, choose-one-or-the-other approach continued in meetings with other leaders. He met the Brazilian president for 39 seconds in a hallway and agreed on the spot to meet next week, and he publicly declared he "100% supports" Argentine President Javier Milei's reelection.
By contrast, he clashed with French President Emmanuel Macron over a solution for Gaza. Trump criticized recognition of a Palestinian state as "a reward for Hamas's horrific atrocities." Macron countered that "Hamas cannot be dismantled by military means alone."
After the speech, in a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, he shifted from his biting tone, saying, "At times I may disagree with U.N. decisions, but I support it 100%." Experts said this speech served as a trailer for an attempt to shake the international order under the banner of "America First," regardless of friends or foes. Time said Trump's more unpredictable and emboldened posture was "an uneasy trailer for how world affairs may unfold over the next three years," adding that "it showed ample reasons for both America's friends and America's enemies to worry."