U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at the United Nations on Tuesday with a sarcastic tirade, dismissing the body as ineffective in promoting peace and ridiculing the state of its headquarters.
"The U.N. 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 it," Trump said in an address in which he complained about a broken escalator at the New York headquarters.
Trump also demanded on Tuesday that European allies immediately stop buying oil from Russia and accused China and India of funding the Ukraine war through their purchases.
"They have to immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia. Otherwise, we're all wasting a lot of time," Trump said.
"I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal," Trump said.
World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly, as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his "America First" agenda.
Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying it's "empty words don't solve wars."
"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 offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.
He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated the successes of his administration's efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.
The U.S. president's speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body's 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza,
Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump's antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.
"This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years," said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.
Trump touted "the renewal of American strength around the world" and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world's biggest problems.
General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.
"Sometimes we could've done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail," Baerbock said in her opening remarks.
Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Türkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He'll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His response has also been relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year's General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.
