Africa-Press – Eritrea. US President Donald Trump began his remarks by telling the chamber at the UN General Assembly Hall i New York that the teleprompter was not working. He, however, said he doesn’t mind, adding that this way “you speak more from the heart”.
“Whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he said, sweeping his eyes across the packed hall. Trump began his address by hitting out at the previous US administration, blaming his predecessor for a repeated “set of disasters”.
He said eight months into his second term, the US is the “hottest country” in the world, a phrase he frequently uses. “This is indeed the golden age of America,” he said.
He further used his speech to talk about the achievements he sees his administration making. Touching on the US stock markets’ recent highs, investments in the US, tax and regulation cuts and border security.
These are similar talking points we regularly hear from him when he speaks to the media in the US. Trump mentioned the “historic trade deals” he has signed after introducing sweeping global tariffs.
He mentioned the UK first, which was the first nation to sign a major deal with the US under Trump, as well as the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and “many, many others”.
“America is respected again, like it has never been respected before,” he said. Earlier, Trump mentioned Nato members committing to an increase in defence spending, at his request, from 2% to 5% of GDP. He also said the US has worked on strengthening partnerships in the Gulf with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.
UN ‘did not even try to help’ end global conflicts – Trump
Trump then mentioned the seven wars he claims to have ended during his second term so far, adding that people told him these conflicts were “unendable”.
He listed conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand; Kosovo and Serbia; Pakistan and India; Israel and Iran; Egypt and Ethiopia; Armenia and Azerbaijan; and the “vicious violent war” between DR Congo and Rwanda.
No other president has “ever done anything close to that”, he said. He said the UN “did not even try to help” in any of them. FACT CHECK: Has President Trump really ‘ended seven wars’?
President Trump has been talking about his record in diplomacy in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, claiming in just eight months to have “ended seven unendable wars”.
The “wars” he listed were between: Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo.
A number of these “wars” lasted just days, although they were the result of long-standing tensions, and it is unclear whether some of the peace deals will hold. In May, four days of fighting between India and Pakistan ended because of “a long night of talks mediated by the United States”, according to Trump.
Pakistan praised his efforts and recommended him for the Nobel Peace Prize but India played down US involvement. In June, the US hit nuclear sites in Iran – a move widely seen as bringing to an end 12 days of hostilities between the Iranians and Israel. However, experts say there has been no agreement for a permanent peace.
Trump also hailed a peace agreement signed between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Washington in June. But both sides have been accused of violating this and human rights groups have documented the killing of civilians in eastern Congo in the last few months.
UN not ‘living up to its potential’ – Trump Trump also criticised the United Nations, saying there are only two things he has got from them – a bad escalator and a broken teleprompter.
The US president said the UN was “not there for us” during negotiations to end the wars he says he has “solved”. He asks the General Assembly: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?”
“It’s not even coming close to living up to its potential… It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve wars,” Trump said.
Trump went further to tell the chamber that he had put in a bid several years ago – when he was a property developer – to remodel the United Nations building.
The UN “decided to go in a different direction”, which produced a “far inferior product”, he said. Referencing his troubles with the escalator today again, he adds that the organisation “did not even get the marble floors I promised them”.
Continuing, he asked if the UN is able to play a “productive role” in world affairs. Trump has long had gripes about the UN building, in 2012, he famously said that the “cheap” tiles near the podium “bothered him”.
At one point, he even offered to help renovate the building, which the global body rejected – prompting him to complain that the UN doesn’t “know what it wants”.
His more recent complaints – such as being stuck on an escalator – are, clearly, indicative of wider issues he has with the organisation. The seating at the event is also indicative of a world that is very different than was the case even last year.
Sitting just two rows up from Marco Rubio and new UN ambassador Mike Waltz is Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa – a man once wanted by the US for ties to militant groups and whom some UN member countries still sanction.
Trump calls out Iran’s nuclear programme
Trump said the most danger to the planet today is the most destructive weapons known to man. He said Iran, which he calls the world’s leading “sponsor of terror”, cannot be allowed to possess the most dangerous weapon, a reference to the country’s nuclear programme.
During his speech, Iran’s ambassadors are shown listening to Trump’s comments inside the General Assembly, showing their reactions to Trump’s comments.
Trump then outlined how he ordered bombs to be dropped on Iran’s key nuclear facility earlier this year. “We did something that for 22 years people wanted to do.”
Recognising a Palestinian state is a ‘reward’ for Hamas – Trump
Trump also said he has been involved in trying to get a ceasefire in Gaza and that the negotiating parties “have to get it done”. He brought up the fact that several powerful countries have, in recent day,s recognised a Palestinian state.
Trump said “this would be a reward” for Hamas’s atrocities. Instead of giving in to Hamas’s ransom demands, Trump said that those who want peace should be united in one message: “Release the hostages now.” That line receives applause in the room.
Ukraine war was only meant to be a ‘quick little skirmish’ – Trump
Trump said the families of the Israeli hostages want the dead bodies of the hostages taken by Hamas to be returned, every bit as much as if they were alive. He then pivoted to talk about the “killing in Ukraine”.
Trump said he thought it would be the easiest conflict to solve because of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which had always been “a good one”.
“In war, you don’t know what’s going to happen; there are always lots of surprises, both good and bad,” he said.
He added that it was “supposed to be a quick little skirmish, and its protracted length makes Russia look bad, not good. Trump talked about Nato countries, some of which he said have “not cut off” Russian energy products.
He said through doing this, they are “funding the war against themselves”. He called this “embarrassing”. The US is prepared to impose “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” on Russia if it is not ready to make a deal to end the war, Trump said.
But for this to be effective, European nations need to join the US in “adopting the exact same measures”, he adds. “Europe has to step it up,” he said. Trump accuses the UN of facilitating ‘invasions’ of Western countries by migrants
Trump, who has now been speaking for more than the allotted 15 minutes, claims the UN is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders, accusing the world body of giving cash cards to migrants coming to the United States’ southern border.
“The UN is supposed to stop invasions, not create them and not finance them,” he said.
Your countries are ‘going to hell’, Trump tells gathered leaders on borders
Trump tells the assembly members it’s time to end the “failed experiment of open borders. He said Your countries are going to hell”. Earlier, he said almost 50% of inmates in German prisons were foreign nationals, and 53% in Austria, 54% in Greece, and 72% in “beautiful Switzerland.
Europe is in ‘serious trouble’ over migration – Trump “Europe is in serious trouble”, said President Trump. He says “illegal aliens are pouring in” and says they are doing “absolutely nothing about it” – putting it down to a need to be “politically correct”.
He hits out at the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who he calls a “terrible mayor”. He says “they want to go to Sharia law”, referencing Islam’s legal system.
“You are in a different country, you can’t do that,” Trump says. For context, Khan has not announced any plans to bring London under Sharia law. It is unclear what Trump is referencing.
Trump continues by saying, “their immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of western Europe if something is not done immediately”.
Climate change is the ‘greatest con job ever perpetrated’ – Trump
Trump is now saying global warming is not a legitimate idea, calling climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated in the world.” “No more global warming, no more global cooling” he says, claiming that in the 1920s and 30s people were concerned about global temperatures falling.
All these climate change predictions made by the UN and others “were wrong” and made by “stupid people”, he adds. Get away from the “green scam” – referring to climate policies – or your country “will fail,” Trump tells the gathered world leaders.
“And I’m really good at predicting things,” he says Trump broke a record for UNGA speech length. Each speaker is traditionally given 15 minutes to speak to the assembly. How long did the US president take? A little over 56 minutes. That’s longer than any speech he, or indeed any US president, has ever given at UN.
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