‘Your countries are going to hell’: Trump airs grievances at the U.N.

UNITED NATIONS – He accused environmentalists of wanting to “kill all the cows.” He personally insulted the Muslim mayor of London. He bashed allies and foes across the globe. He questioned whether the United Nations should even exist.

“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” President Donald Trump asked a gathering of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, in a meandering, 56-minute speech that extended nearly four times longer than his allotted time limit.

“I’m really good at this stuff,” Trump said. “Your countries are going to hell.”

In his remarks, Trump lectured the United Nations and other countries about how they were failing and aired a list of grievances. Those included but were not limited to a malfunctioning escalator at the U.N.; his not winning a renovation contract at the United Nations during his time as a real estate developer; windmills; other countries’ immigration policies, which he claimed were leading them to ruin; and the way Brazil is being run.

Soon after his speech, Trump made news in another forum. In a social media post, he made a stunning pivot on Ukraine, saying the country, with the support of Europe, was “in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”

His declaration, a welcome development to European allies, was made shortly after a meeting in New York with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

But what appeared to be a major foreign policy shift in the afternoon came only after a lengthy morning lecture by the American president.

The White House had billed Trump’s address to the 80th session of the General Assembly as a chance for the president to lay out his vision for how the U.S. should wield its power abroad.

But Trump’s day did not start well. An escalator he was riding on broke as he entered the building, and his teleprompter malfunctioned early in his speech. (The White House accused U.N. staff of potentially attempting to sabotage him). While he appeared to be reading from prepared remarks, he often broke into ad-libs.

There was some policy discussed. He announced a new effort to enforce the biological weapons convention that would use “AI verification,” and said he wanted “a cessation of the development of nuclear weapons.”

Trump also issued a new warning: That the U.S. military would continue to play the role of judge, jury and executioner in killing suspected drug smugglers operating in international waters. “We will blow you out of existence,” he warned anyone moving drugs out of Venezuela.

But he spent nearly a quarter of his speaking time attacking efforts to address climate change.

Trump undermined the scientific consensus on climate change, saying it was “made by stupid people.” He celebrated the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and “clean, beautiful coal.” He talked about American energy exports and added that “the United States has been taken advantage by much of the world, but not anymore.”

And Trump called climate change the “greatest con job” ever perpetrated on the world and claimed environmentalists are out to eliminate America’s cows.

“’No more cows – we don’t want cows anymore.’ I guess they want to kill all the cows,” Trump said.

He briefly turned to the topic of religion, falsely claiming that Muslim leaders in the West are planning to institute Shariah law, while proclaiming Christianity to be the “most persecuted religion on the planet.”

According to the White House, Trump had always planned to target “globalist institutions” in his speech. Since taking office, he has made drastic changes to the U.S. approach to foreign policy.

He has largely eschewed the use of nonmilitary “soft power,” severely cutting foreign aid and dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has declined to pay for more aid to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion or try to put any limits on Israel’s broadened military campaign in the Gaza Strip. And he has told strongmen leaders of other countries that the United States would no longer sit in judgment of them.

Several close U.S. allies issued what amounted to a reprimand this week of his go-it-alone vision, joining most of the U.N. body in recognizing Palestine as a state and risking the ire of the president, who has adamantly opposed such a move.

The president, for his part, has made it clear he wants little to do with much of the U.N. mandate. He has withdrawn the United States from the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, and ordered a review of the United States’ role in the organization. The Trump administration clawed back $1 billion in funding for the U.N. and informed Congress of its intent to cut another $1 billion, adding to a funding shortfall at the United Nations.

But at the same time, Trump has inserted the U.S. into peace negotiations in conflicts around the world, including the war in Gaza. The president has also shown a willingness to use a quick show of force, as he did when he ordered airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Trump, who is in open pursuit of a Nobel Peace Prize, trumpeted his role in bringing about several peace agreements or ceasefires during his speech, including a deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Rwanda and Congo.

Then he argued he was doing, as a side job, what the U.N. should. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them,” he said, adding that “all I got from the United Nations was an escalator on the way up that stopped right in the middle.”

He claimed that all the United Nations does is write “strongly worded letters” and speak in “empty words.”

“It’s sad I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” he said.

Still, the reaction to Trump’s bashing of the U.N. and other countries was muted. Long gone were the days when he was openly laughed at in the chamber. His speech was greeted with polite applause. Afterward, world leaders clamored to meet with him one on one, a format in which the American president is known to be less bellicose and more accommodating.

In addition to meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump also met with President Javier Milei of Argentina and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, then attended a joint meeting with the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The meeting with the leaders of predominantly Arab or Muslim countries came at a pivotal time for the war in Gaza, as Israel’s military pushes into Gaza City and the country faces allegations in a U.N. inquiry of carrying out a genocide. And it came with the stark absence of Palestinian leaders, as the Trump administration has denied visas to Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and his delegation.

Arab countries have created their own proposal to rebuild Gaza and turn it into part of a future Palestinian state, without Hamas in government. Some of the United States’ longest-standing allies, including Australia, Britain and Canada, now recognize Palestine as a state. Trump has argued that such a designation rewards Hamas and harms efforts to reach a peace agreement with Israel, and he has cast doubt on any eventual two-state solution.

Trump has also insisted that he wants humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza and lamented the “real starvation” there. But the president has not publicly sought to stop the military push by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel or challenge him to restore pathways for aid.

During his speech, Trump bashed the U.S. allies who were recognizing a Palestinian state. He said those countries should instead unite around a message to Hamas: “Release the hostages now.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.