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7 KEY MOMENTS FROM TRUMP’S U.N. SPEECH  
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Joshua Barajas and Dan Cooney
September 23, 2025
PBS
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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”. _

President Donald Trump addresses the 80th United Nations General
Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City. , Photo by Mike/Segar

 

Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump has scaled back U.S. support
of the U.N. This includes withdrawing the U.S.
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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.
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Most recently, the Trump administration announced the U.S. wouldn’t
participate
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a U.N. review of the country’s human rights record.

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

“Empty words don’t solve war.”

“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
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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
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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. [[link removed]] 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.
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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
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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
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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.”
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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.”
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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
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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. [[link removed]]

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.
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_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.
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_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.

_Joshua Barajas is a senior editor for the PBS NewsHour's Communities
Initiative. He's also the senior editor and manager of newsletters._

_Dan Cooney is the PBS NewsHour's Social Media Producer/Coordinator._

* Donald Trump
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* United Nations
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* speech
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