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 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,” Mr. Trump said. “Your countries are going to hell.”
In his remarks, Mr. Trump lectured the United Nations and other countries about how they are failing and aired a list of grievances. That included but was 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.
The White House had billed Mr. Trump’s address to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly as a chance for the president to lay out his vision for how America should wield its power abroad.
But Mr. Trump’s teleprompter malfunctioned early on, and while he appeared to be reading the speech, 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 “A.I. verification,” and said he wanted “a cessation of the development of nuclear weapons.”
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The post ‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell’: Trump Airs His Grievances at the U.N. appeared first on New York Times.
