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President Trump on Tuesday questioned the purpose of the United Nations in remarks to the organization’s general assembly as he rattled off a list of personal and policy complaints with the group.
The president in his remarks in New York City touted his role in helping to broker ceasefires in several conflicts, noting the United Nations had not offered assistance with his efforts.
“Later I realized that the United Nations wasn’t there for us. I thought of it really after the fact…that being the case, what is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said.
“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 added. “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.”
The president has long bragged about his role in brokering agreements between Thailand and Cambodia, Pakistan and India, Armenia and Azerbaijan and others in armed conflict. He has struggled to end the fighting in Ukraine and Israel is still carrying out military operations in Gaza.
Trump’s combative remarks took multiple swipes at the United Nations itself. The president opened by noting the teleprompter was not working and later complained that an escalator in the building had stopped working while he and first lady Melania Trump were using it.
Trump has for years upended the global order and traditional institutions like the United Nations, leaning into his “America First” vision instead. But Tuesday’s speech, Trump’s first since taking office for his second term, was still remarkable for how hostile it was toward the United Nations’s basic mission and initiatives.
The president accused the United Nations of contributing to the problem of global migration. He derided climate change, which has been a major focus of U.N.-aligned bodies, as a “con job” and called the concept of a carbon footprint “nonsense.”
“All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,” Trump said. “They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same counties no chance for success.”