United States President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, 23 September 2025, addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the first time since 2020. Trump, during his address, covered a wide range of topics, ranging from the lower levels of global migration to environmental initiatives, and he even joked about a technical malfunction related to the teleprompter and a bad escalator in the United Nations.
From blasting at the United Nations to his comments on environmental and climate change, here are key highlights from what President Donald Trump said in front of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
Here’s what Trump said
1. Ended wars: Trump rejected the moves by the allied nations to back a Palestinian state amid Israel’s latest Gaza offensive and asked the European nations to adopt the same set of economic measures he is proposing to use against Russia to end the war against Ukraine.
“I’m really good at this stuff,” said Trump. “Your countries are going to hell,” he said.
2. Climate change: Donald Trump dismissed climate change, calling it the ‘greatest con’ which has been perpetrated on the world, and the predictions made by the international body and many others are often for bad reasons.
“It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” said Trump. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.”
“They were made by stupid people that have cost their country’s fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success,” said Trump on Tuesday.
3. Blasts UN: President Trump said that the United Nations has had ‘tremendous potential’, but it is not coming close to living up to that level. He also said that all the international body does now is to write a ‘strong-worded’ letter and then never follow up with it.
“It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve wars,” said Trump.
The US President also told the representatives of foreign nations across the world that the United States is the ‘hottest’ country anywhere in the world, and nobody even comes close to it.
On the topic of business, Trump blasted at the UN with the narrative that the United States is the best country to do business with on planet Earth and also claimed that the US economy is now “bigger and even better,” compared to his first stint at the White House as the President.
4. Teleprompter issue: Trump, during his speech, also complained about the teleprompter, mockingly saying that he thinks that whoever the teleprompter operator was in “big trouble.”
“I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter because the teleprompter is not working,” said Trump.
“I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” Trump said, laughing on Tuesday. Trump has reportedly targeted this during both of his presidential terms, saying this is all he got from the United Nations.
5. Broken Escalator: President Trump on Tuesday said that the escalator in the United Nations appeared to have malfunctioned as he and the US First Lady, Melania Trump, stepped on it. He also said that if his wife were not in “great shape,” she would have fallen because of it.
“This is these are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” he said jokingly about the teleprompter operator finding themselves “big trouble” for it.
