80th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City

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7 key moments from Trump’s U.N. speech

Politics Sep 23, 2025 3:25 PM EDT

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When President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, his speech underscored a familiar opposition to the mission of the United Nations.

During his first term, he dismissed the United Nations as “just a club” for countries’ representatives to have a good time. Years on, he doesn’t seem to be any bigger of a fan of the global body.

Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump has scaled back U.S. support of the U.N. This includes withdrawing the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council again and pulling funding for some of the body’s key programs, such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees.

Most recently, the Trump administration announced the U.S. wouldn’t participate in a U.N. review of the country’s human rights record.

Early into his nearly hourlong remarks on Tuesday, Trump said the global body is “not even coming close to living up” to its potential.

“All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up,” the president said. “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war. The only thing that solves war, and wars, is action.”

Trump’s wandering speech had no shortage of false claims and contradictions. He touted peace while telling drug cartels he would blow them “out of existence.” He questioned the purpose of the U.N.’s existence, but later in the morning told the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres that the U.S. “is behind the United Nations 100%.”

“I may disagree with it sometimes, but I am so behind it because the potential for peace at this institution is great,” he said.

Here’s are some highlights from Trump’s U.N. speech:

1. A teleprompter malfunction from the start

Watch the clip in the player above.

While opening his speech, Trump told the room that the teleprompter wasn’t working, saying that whoever was operating it was “in big trouble.” He later mocked the U.N. for having a “bad escalator.”

2. Trump claimed he has “ended seven wars,” while the U.N. offered empty words

Watch the clip in the player above.

Trump, who is campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize, boasted how he — and not the U.N. — has been a key player in settling global conflicts. But Trump’s repeated claims of being a peacemaker are complicated. Some of the conflicts he has cited in the past have not been wars or have yet to end.

3. Trump pushes back on countries who recognized a Palestinian state

Watch the clip in the player above.

This week alone, Britain, Canada, Australia, Portugal and France all formally recognized a Palestinian state, despite opposition from the U.S. and Israel. Trump said this upswell of support for Palestine would “encourage continued conflict” and would be a “reward” for Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 attack almost two years ago that set off the war in Gaza.

4. Trump urges Europe to “step it up” against Russia

Watch the clip in the player above.

Trump said if Russia does not end its invasion of Ukraine, he is prepared to impose “a strong round of powerful tariffs.” He then told European nations to “step it up” and stop importing Russian oil.

5. Trump tells countries they’re “going to hell” over migration

Watch the clip in the player above.

Trump scolded representatives for their countries’ immigration policies, while upholding his mass deportation agenda in the U.S. as the best way to address the “crisis of uncontrolled migration.” This led the president to say, “I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”

6. Trump described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”

Watch the clip in the player above.

The U.S. president claimed that scientific predictions made by U.N. bodies were wrong and blasted wind farms and other renewable energy projects. He instead encouraged countries to buy fossil fuels from the U.S.

7. As tensions between Brazil and U.S. mount, their leaders give contrasting speeches

As is tradition, Brazil led off the first day of speeches.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula as he’s better known, warned that multilateralism, or international cooperation, “is at a new crossroads.”

“Throughout the world, anti-democratic forces are trying to subjugate institutions and stifle freedoms. They worship violence, praise ignorance, act as physical and digital militias, and restrict the press,” Lula said, through an interpreter, in his nearly 19-minute speech.

Trump, who delivered his speech right after Lula, levied a 50% tariff on many Brazilian goods largely as a penalty for the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who was earlier this month found guilty of a coup plot.

Though Trump criticized Brazil in his remarks, he did at one point strike a softer tone.

Watch the clip in the player above.

The U.S. president mentioned that the two leaders briefly spoke as they passed each other on the path to the main speaker podium.

“I saw him, he saw me, and we embraced,” Trump said. “But he seemed like a very nice man, actually. He liked me, I liked him,” Trump said, prompting chatter and a smattering of applause from global leaders in the room.

“We actually agreed that we would meet next week,” Trump said, though he didn’t provide details on this possible meet-up.

The U.S. president quickly returned to his criticism of Lula’s country, saying, “Brazil is doing poorly.”

In an interview Monday, Lula told PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz that people ask him whether he likes Trump.

Watch the segment in the player above.

“It’s not an issue of whether I like him or not,” he said.

“What matters is that he’s the head of state of the United States, and I’m the head of state in Brazil. And as two heads of state, we have to respect each other, because we were elected democratically by the people of our countries, and we need to give support to these people and to govern them the best way possible,” he added.