Trump Rips U.N. as Useless During General Assembly Address: ‘Empty Words’

By James Lynch

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

 

President Donald Trump tore into the United Nations during his address before the General Assembly on Tuesday, informing the assembled world leaders that he views the U.N. as a useless body that provided no assistance in his efforts to negotiate peace deals around the world.

 

Trump boasted that he had brokered an end to seven wars since taking office for the second time, contrasting his diplomatic actions against the international body’s “empty words.”

 

“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And sadly in all cases the United Nations did not even try to help, in any of them,” Trump said.

 

“I never even received a phone call from the United Nations to help in finalizing the deal. All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that stopped right in the middle,” he added, referencing what he views as the poor condition of U.N. headquarters in Manhattan.

 

The Trump administration has been involved in diplomatic efforts to end several wars and emerging military conflicts around the world over the past nine months. Trump claims that his intervention led to peace agreements between India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, and other nations.

 

The U.N., Trump claimed, consistently fails to take action when member states refuse to heed calls for peace.

 

“What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential…but it’s not even coming close to living up that potential. All they seem to do is write a strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action.”

 

For his efforts, Trump has publicly expressed his desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump’s attempts at ending the wars in Gaza and Ukraine have not led to lasting peace agreements.

 

The U.N. General Assembly is a days-long gathering for world leaders to convene and attempt to address the world’s most pressing issues. The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the world’s approach to the environment are two of the summit’s major topics. The Trump administration’s pro-Israel and pro-fossil fuel positions will likely differ from those taken by European nations and other parts of the world. Artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and international aid will also be hot topics for world leaders to discuss.

 

Trump dedicated much of his speech to urging the assembled leaders to crackdown on immigration into their respective countries, arguing that Europe in particular has been harmed by inflows of migrants who do not share its cultural commitments. He also took aim at the environmental policies pursued by western democracies, arguing that European countries had handicapped their economies while China and other authoritarian countries benefitted by continuing to rely on traditional energy sources.

 

The Trump administration has significantly reduced America’s ties to the U.N. because of its support for leftist causes. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in July because of its embrace of “woke” cultural issues. At the start of his term, Trump pulled out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and ended U.S. participation in UNRWA, the Hamas-linked relief organization.