US President Donald Trump took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, delivering a sweeping speech that touched on foreign policy, immigration, climate change and more. He attacked friends and rivals alike, while making controversial – and often factually inaccurate – assertions.
Here’s a look at some of his key comments and arguments – and how they hold up against the facts.
Broken teleprompter
Trump kicked off his speech with a lighthearted comment about a non-functional teleprompter, noting that he did not mind that it was not working.
“I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working,” Trump said.
“I feel very happy to be up here with you, nevertheless. And that way, you speak more from the heart. I can only say that whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
But a UN official said the teleprompter was being operated by the White House.
And after Trump finished speaking, UNGA President Annalena Baerbock said: “As we are receiving queries, I would like to assure you that, don’t worry, the UN teleprompters are working perfectly.”
Baerbock was Germany’s foreign minister until earlier this year.
‘You’re destroying your countries’
Trump said that nations that were more welcoming of immigrants than the US under him were “destroying” their countries.
“They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble. They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe.”
Trump then referred to his administration’s policies towards migrants and asylum seekers.
“You have to end it now – I can tell you. I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.”
“Once we started detaining and deporting everyone who crossed the border, and removing illegal aliens from the United States, they simply stopped coming,” he said.
Earlier in his speech, he also said that in “four months in a row, the number of illegal aliens admitted and entering our country has been zero”.
Trump’s claims about undocumented migrants – some of whom cross the border seeking asylum – whom he calls “illegal”, are an exaggeration.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, nationwide apprehensions at border crossings dropped from about 60,600 in August 2024 to roughly 8,200 in July 2025. This is one of the lowest monthly totals in decades, but it is not close to zero.
Pressure on Russia: ‘Europe has to step it up’
Trump criticised Washington’s NATO allies for continuing to buy Russian energy, while urging Europe to step up pressure on Moscow over its war on Ukraine.
“China and India are the primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase Russian oil, but inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products,” Trump said.
As Al Jazeera reported in August, after the US doubled its 25 percent tariffs on Indian imports to 50 percent as punishment for New Delhi’s continued oil purchases from Russia, the European Union actually trades even more with Moscow.
The EU’s trade with Russia now – at 67.5 billion euros ($77.9bn) in 2024 – is about a quarter of what it was in 2021, before Russia’s full-fledged war on Ukraine began (257.5 billion euros ($297.4bn). But this is still more than India’s total trade with Russia in 2024-25, which was worth $68.7bn.
And Europe actually increased its imports of Russian LNG by 9 percent in 2024, compared with the year before.
Meanwhile, the US also imports a range of chemicals from Russia. Total Russia-US trade in 2024 stood at $5.2bn, according to the US Trade Representative’s Office, though the numbers are down significantly from 2021, when their trade in goods stood at $36bn.
Trump warned that the US is prepared to impose a new round of tariffs on Russia if no agreement is reached to end the war.
“For those tariffs to be effective, European nations – all of you are gathered here right now – would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures,” Trump said.
“I mean, you’re much closer to this. See, we have an ocean in between. You’re right there, and Europe has to step it up. They can’t be doing what they’re doing,” he added.
‘The greatest con job ever’
Trump also returned to his longstanding criticism of climate science.
“If you look back years ago, in the 1920s and the 1930s, they said global cooling will kill the world,” Trump said.
“Then they said global warming will kill the world, but then it started getting cooler. So now, they just call it climate change because that way, they can’t miss. Climate change – because if it goes higher or lower, whatever the hell happens, there’s climate change.”
“It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion. Climate change, no matter what happens, you’re involved in that. No more global warming, no more global cooling. All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.”
Trump at UNGA: Climate change— it’s the greatest con-job ever perpetrated on the world. pic.twitter.com/0vOknp9M2O
— Mintel World (@mintelworld) September 23, 2025
“If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail, and I’m really good at predicting things,” he added.
His remarks came as the UN urged countries to present their updated decarbonisation targets at the UNGA, aiming to revive momentum in the global fight against climate change.
Scientific evidence – including that touted by parts of Trump’s own administration – shows that global warming, along with its impacts on rising temperatures, shifting oceans, extreme weather and wildfires, is unfolding faster than previously expected.
‘I ended seven wars’
Trump cast himself as a global peacemaker.
“I ended seven wars. And in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed. This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda – a vicious, violent war that was – Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Trump said.
“There’s never been anything like that. Very honoured to have done it. It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” he said.
“And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them… All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that, on the way up, stopped right in the middle.”
Though Trump has taken credit for helping to pause the conflicts he listed, some countries have disputed his claims. India, in particular, has publicly, and repeatedly, insisted that its May clash with Pakistan ended through bilateral conversations between the militaries of the South Asian neighbours, not any US mediation.
Still, Trump’s supporters have dubbed him the “peace president” and argued that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.
The UN has not been there for us as a country. For months, @POTUS brokered peace in major world conflicts without any help being offered to him.
The UN has tremendous potential, but it is not living up to it. Strongly worded letters are just empty words. Actions end wars. pic.twitter.com/fhvLmJceQK
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) September 23, 2025
On Iran strike and peace push
Trump pointed to the US strike on Iran’s nuclear sites as proof of US strength, saying it helped him broker an end to the Israel-Iran military clashes in June.
“I extended a pledge of full cooperation in exchange for a suspension of Iran’s nuclear programme,” Trump said.
“The regime’s answer was to continue their constant threats to their neighbours and US interests throughout the region.”
“And three months ago in Operation Midnight Hammer, seven American B-2 bombers dropped the fourteen 30,000-pound-each (13,600kg) bombs on Iran’s key nuclear facility, totally obliterating everything,” Trump said.
“We hate to use them, but we did something that for 22 years people wanted to do. With Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity demolished, I immediately brokered an end to the 12-day war, as it’s called, between Israel and Iran, with both sides agreeing to fight… no longer,” he added.
At that time, Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament, said that the US attack was not surprising and that no irreversible damage was sustained during the strikes. He added that authorities had evacuated all three nuclear sites that were bombed, in advance.
Trump says recognising Palestinian state ‘rewards Hamas’
Trump condemned mounting efforts to recognise a Palestinian state, accusing Hamas of blocking peace and demanding the release of captives being held in Gaza.
Just this week, Australia, Andorra, Belgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Portugal and the United Kingdom have recognised the state of Palestine.
“Hamas has repeatedly rejected reasonable offers to make peace,” Trump said.
“We can’t forget October 7th, can we?,” he asked, referring to the 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, after which Israel launched a brutal war on the Gaza Strip.
“Now, as if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists for their atrocities,” Trump added.
“This could have been solved so long ago. But instead of giving in to Hamas’s ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message: Release the hostages now,” he added.
Hamas on Tuesday refuted any responsibility for the failure to reach a deal to end the war in Gaza. “We have never been an obstacle to reaching an agreement,” it said in a statement.
“The US administration, the mediators and the world know that Netanyahu is the sole obstructionist in all attempts to reach an agreement,” it added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas has said it is ready for a truce that will lead to the release of captives and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, awe well as a withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, but Netanyahu has refused to commit to a full withdrawal.
This month, Israel launched a ground invasion to occupy Gaza City, killing hundreds of Palestinians and displacing tens of thousands. In all, Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, and its restrictions on the entry of food and aid into the Palestinian territory have spawned a man-made famine.
On drug traffickers: ‘We will blow you out of existence’
Trump defended the controversial US military strikes on boats carrying what he alleges are Venezuelan drug traffickers, which have killed at least 17 people.
“Let’s put it this way: People don’t like taking big loads of drugs in boats any more,” Trump said.
“There aren’t too many boats that are travelling on the seas by Venezuela. They tend not to want to travel very quickly any more. And we’ve virtually stopped drugs coming into our country by sea. We call them the water drugs,” he added.
Experts have cast doubt on the legality of US attacks on foreign boats in international waters. Data from both the UN and the US itself suggest that Venezuela is not a major source of cocaine coming in the US, as Trump has claimed.
Trump continued: “I’ve also designated multiple savage drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations, along with two bloodthirsty transnational gangs, probably the worst gangs anywhere in the world, MS13 and Tren de Aragua.”
“They’re the enemies of all humanity. And for this reason, we’ve recently begun using the supreme power of the United States military to destroy Venezuelan terrorists and trafficking networks led by [President] Nicolas Maduro.”
The Trump administration has not provided evidence linking Maduro to Tren de Aragua or any other drug cartel, and the Venezuelan leader has denied the allegations. The US intelligence community has also contradicted claims of ties between Venezuela’s government and the gang.
“We have no choice; can’t let it happen. They’re destroying – I believe we lost 300,000 people last year to drugs – 300,000 – fentanyl and other drugs. Each boat that we sink carries drugs that would kill more than 25,000 Americans. We will not let that happen,” Trump said.
In reality, most fentanyl in the US is trafficked through Mexico [PDF], according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
And according to the US Office on Drugs and Crime, coca cultivation, the basis of cocaine production, is concentrated in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, with US-bound trafficking routes running largely through Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, not Venezuela.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/24/youre-destroying-your-countries-key-moments-from-trumps-un-speech?traffic_source=rss
