Embedded Files
Written by Carthan Connnolly
September 28, 2025
On Tuesday, September 23rd, Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly with confidence and obstinacy, marking another one of his gratuitous but unsurprising provocative appearances on the global stage. His speech prioritized nationalism over multilateralism, criticizing the U.N. itself, immigration, and climate change policy, while claiming sweeping successes in conflict resolution. The address drew scattered applause from a few sympathetic leaders, stony silence from many others, and a flood of rebuttals afterward.
In typical Trump fashion, the speech was less about global cooperation and more about warning nations that their future was at risk if they pursued “globalist” policies, which resulted in his ultimate denunciation of the United Nations as a hollow institution. The speech, though short on diplomatic nuance, captured Trump’s worldview: the U.S. should act unilaterally, borders must be sealed, climate science is a scam, and global institutions like the U.N. are obstacles rather than partners. I have decided to take a closer look at four of his main claims to explore what Trump meant, how accurate his statements were, and what they reveal about his general strategy and audience.
Photo from CNN (Mike Segar/Reuters)
Trump’s central thesis was that the U.N. is a broken institution, bogged down in “empty words” and symbolic resolutions that do nothing to end wars or crises. This sweeping statement is misleading. The U.N. often fails at its most visible mission—preventing wars between major powers—but it has been effective in areas Trump ignores. For instance, U.N. peacekeepers helped stabilize Mozambique and Liberia after brutal civil wars, while election monitors in Cambodia and East Timor ensured transitions that might otherwise have collapsed. The U.N. also coordinates 90% of the world’s humanitarian relief, including refugee support for over 36 million people. To say it has “done nothing” is demonstrably false, though frustration with its bureaucracy and veto power is fair criticism. By mocking the logistics of his own appearance (facilitated by the U.N.), including the teleprompter's glitch and faulty escalator, Trump made his point abundantly clear: The U.N. is irrelevant, and only sovereign nations acting in their own interests can make real progress.
Another of Trump's boldest points was his declaration that climate change is "the greatest con job ever perpetrated." This statement was one of the most globally alarming as he outright rejected climate science. He mocked renewable energy as unreliable and costly, insisted predictions of catastrophe had failed to materialize, and derided European countries for embracing green policies. He even cited wildly inflated numbers for heat-related deaths, suggesting hundreds of thousands die annually due to “bad climate policy.” The evidence strongly contradicts him. Scientific consensus—from the IPCC to NASA—indicates that global warming is accelerating, with record-breaking heatwaves, melting ice, rising sea levels, and intensifying storms. Renewable energy is becoming increasingly cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions, and its rapid growth has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Trump’s dismissal isn’t just inaccurate; it undermines the urgent need for collective action. His rhetoric signals to his own base that climate policy is elitist fearmongering, and to the rest of the world, it reinforces U.S. unreliability in addressing all of humanity’s most pressing external threat.
Photo from ABC News
Trump also made the hefty claim that he "ended seven wars," an assertion that falls apart under scrutiny. While Trump did order troop drawdowns in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, “ending” wars is entirely inaccurate. Afghanistan fell back into Taliban control after the U.S. withdrawal, with violence continuing. In Syria, U.S. forces never fully left and still conduct counterterrorism operations. In Yemen, the U.S. reduced its support for Saudi Arabia, but the conflict raged on. He also claimed credit for reduced tensions in North Korea, but no formal peace was achieved. Additionally, many of the conflicts Trump cited either remain ongoing, were never formally declared wars, or were settled through multilateral negotiations involving numerous players. For example, the brief Israel-Iran flare-up that ended with a ceasefire involved heavy Qatari mediation and complex regional diplomacy was not a unilateral U.S. triumph. Declaring these “wars ended” misleads audiences about the nature of diplomacy and the fragility of peace agreements. Trump’s framing inflated his role while erasing the contributions of others.
One of the most incendiary moments came when Trump declared that immigration was “ruining countries” and urged leaders to shut down borders entirely. He singled out Europe, portraying its migrant policies as an existential threat, and repeated old conspiracy-laden rhetoric about cities like London supposedly moving toward Islamic “Sharia law.” For Trump, migration is chaos, and expulsion is order. Europe has certainly faced challenges with refugee integration, particularly after the Syrian war, but studies show migrants contributed more in taxes than they received in benefits in Germany and Sweden within a decade. That being said, irregular migration into Europe has been declining in recent years, and no credible data suggests cities are on the brink of religious law takeovers. While migration can strain resources, it contributes economically, demographically, and culturally to host societies. By painting migrants as criminals or invaders, Trump ignored the protections enshrined in international law, including the right to seek asylum. His statement was misleading, but more than that, it was a direct rebuke of decades of human rights commitments.
At its core, Trump’s speech was about image and legacy. By claiming he had ended wars and made the world safer, he painted himself as a peacemaker deserving recognition—perhaps even the Nobel Peace Prize he has openly envied in the past. The problem is that these claims stretch the truth, and the international audience at the U.N. is far harder to convince than a rally crowd back home. The reaction abroad reflected that skepticism. German officials dismissed his attacks on renewable energy as “out of touch with reality,” while French diplomats criticized his climate remarks as “a danger to the planet.” Small island nations, including the Maldives, expressed alarm, saying his rhetoric on climate amounted to ignoring their potential extinction. In Africa, leaders who rely heavily on U.N. humanitarian aid were stunned by his attempt to write the organization off as useless. Even U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea were uneasy with his focus on self-congratulation rather than alliance commitments.
In the end, Trump’s speech left the world with more questions than answers. Was he trying to solidify his domestic image as the strongman who stood up to global institutions? Was he chasing the elusive legacy of “peace” to bolster his standing in history? Whatever the intent, the effect was unmistakable: rather than reassuring allies or offering solutions to global crises, Trump pushed the United States further into a posture of isolation. The U.N. was not just his stage, but his foil—an institution to belittle in order to make himself look larger.
Sources:
"Crisis and Emergency Response." United Nations. Last modified 2025. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/crisis-and-emergency-response.
Glasser, Matthew, Daniel Manzo, and Daniel Peck. "Fact-checking what Trump said about climate change during the UN General Assembly." ABC News. Last modified September 23, 2025. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-trump-climate-change-general-assembly/story?id=125855451.
"Iran-Israel Ceasefire News." CNN. Last modified June 28, 2025. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-conflict-us-trump-06-28-25-intl-hnk.
Liptak, Kevin. "Five takeaways from Trump's UN speech." CNN. Last modified September 23, 2025. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/23/politics/takeaways-trump-un-speech.
Qiu, Linda. "Fact-Checking Trump's U.N. Speech." The New York Times. Last modified September 23, 2025. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/us/politics/trump-speech-unga-fact-check.html.
Stokols, Eli. "Trump blasts the UN for not 'living up' to its potential." Politico. Last modified September 23, 2025. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/23/trump-blasts-un-peacemaking-00576177.
Tian, Yang. "Trump demands inquiry over UN 'triple sabotage' after escalator and teleprompter mishaps." BBC. Last modified September 24, 2025. Accessed September 26, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dr0zrr1kpo.
Watson, Kathryn, and Joe Walsh. "Trump criticizes European allies in U.N. speech: 'Your countries are going to hell.'" CBS News. Last modified September 23, 2025. Accessed September 28, 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-united-nations-general-assembly-speech-unga/.
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