Trump Blasts UN as “Empty Words,” Denounces Migration, Climate Change, and Scolds Allies
President Trump denounced the UN as ineffective on migration, climate, and peace, mocking its "empty words." He warned adversaries, Reprimanded allies on Russia energy purchases, and vowed to destroy drug smugglers.
Erbil (Kurdistan24) – In a fiery return to the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a relentless broadside against the world body, mocking its failures to maintain peace, denouncing its handling of migration, climate change, and energy, and warning adversaries that Washington would destroy drug smugglers “out of existence.”
Addressing the UN for the first time since his White House comeback, the 79-year-old president dismissed the institution as ineffective, questioning its very purpose. “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” he asked, ridiculing it as a body that does nothing more than draft “a really strongly worded letter.” He added: “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.”
Trump further ridiculed the UN headquarters itself, complaining about a malfunctioning teleprompter and escalator. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations—a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” he quipped, adding that despite its “tremendous potential,” the UN was “not even coming close to living up to it.”
Turning to migration, Trump accused the UN of fueling an “assault” on Western countries, alleging that its financial aid to migrants had abetted illegal entry into the United States and destabilized European allies. “The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders,” he charged. He bluntly told Europe that open borders had turned their nations into disaster zones: “Your countries are going to hell.”
The president extended his criticism to London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, calling out the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital in a speech laden with warnings about what he described as the collapse of Western societies under migration pressure. “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” Trump declared.
The U.S. president also turned his fire on international climate policy, calling global warming “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and branding carbon footprints a “hoax” designed with “evil intentions.” He insisted the climate agenda would lead the world down a “path of total destruction.”
The president also denounced the recent wave of international recognitions of a Palestinian state, calling them “a reward for Hamas’s horrible atrocities, including October 7, even while they refuse to release the hostages or accept a ceasefire.”
On Ukraine, Trump demanded that European allies “immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia,” accusing them of prolonging the war. “Otherwise we’re all wasting a lot of time,” he warned. He further lashed out at India and China, charging that their continued purchases of Russian oil and gas amounted to funding Moscow’s war effort.
Trump, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 in a summit that ended Moscow’s isolation but failed to achieve progress on Ukraine, admitted last week that Putin had “really let me down.” He is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the second time during the UN gathering, where the war remains a central issue.
In one of his most strident warnings, Trump vowed to annihilate narcotics traffickers after U.S. forces destroyed three Venezuelan smuggling boats, killing more than a dozen people. “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he declared.
Trump’s second term has been defined by a barrage of nationalist policies, rolling back multilateral cooperation. He has withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the UN climate accord, slashed development aid, and imposed sanctions on foreign judges whose rulings he claims undermined U.S. sovereignty.
At the opening of the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that U.S.-led aid cuts were “wreaking havoc” worldwide. “What kind of world will we choose? A world of raw power—or a world of laws?” Guterres asked, signaling the clash between Washington’s unilateralism and the UN’s multilateral framework.
In New York, Trump is expected to hold only a few bilateral meetings, including with Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei, an ideological ally to whom Washington is considering extending an economic lifeline.
Trump’s appearance came amid heavy security in Manhattan, with barricades, checkpoints, and heavily armed patrols around the UN district. According to AFP The U.S. Secret Service revealed it had recently disrupted a plot involving more than 100,000 weaponized cellphone SIM cards capable of blocking communications near the UN headquarters, describing it as the work of “nation-state threat actors.”
Observer note that the speech underscored Trump’s determination to use his second presidency to redefine America’s role in the world. Mocking, confrontational, and unyielding, he dismissed the UN as irrelevant, accused U.S. allies of weakness, and projected his doctrine of sovereignty and force.
For his supporters, the address reaffirmed his promise to put “America First” and challenge what he sees as globalist failures. For his critics, it was another sign that Washington is retreating from international cooperation at a moment of rising global instability.
