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() President Donald Trump will return to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver an address outlining his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.
World leaders will be listening closely at the U.N. General Assembly, where the U.S. president’s remarks are typically among the event’s most anticipated. This year’s speech comes at one of the most volatile moments in the group’s 80-year history, as leaders grapple with wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan as well as concerns over artificial intelligence and Trump’s skepticism of the U.N.
UN is the ‘most stressed’ it’s ever been: Professor
Trump has signaled a more aggressive use of U.S. military power in the first eight months of his second term. In June, he ordered airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, followed by three more this month on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
At least two of those strikes were fatal and involved vessels from Venezuela, fueling speculation that Trump may be laying the groundwork for the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro.
Some lawmakers and human rights advocates have accused Trump of bypassing due process by authorizing lethal force against alleged smugglers rather than intercepting suspected vessels and prosecuting suspects in U.S. courts.
“This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” Anjali K. Dayal, an international politics professor at Fordham University in New York, told the Associated Press.
Trump to meet privately with world leaders
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump will use his address to tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end global conflicts.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said during Monday’s briefing.
Following his speech, Trump will hold private meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also meet with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan before hosting a reception with more than 100 world leaders.