Donald Trump rattled off numerous wild claims,some of them false,in a wide-ranging address before the 80th United Nations General Assembly.
The US president started his speech at the UN headquarters in New York City this morning by announcing that the teleprompter was not working and joked that the operator was ‘in big trouble’,setting off laughs from the audience.
But he quickly got to firing off contentious comments.
Trump said the US is the ‘hottest country anywhere in the world’ during the session centered around the 80th anniversary of the UN’s founding.
His speech ran about 57 minutes,which is his longest address ever to assembly,and far exceeded his time limit.
Here are the most absurd remarks he made:
President Donald Trump addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City (Picture: Reuters)
Trump falsely claimed that London’s mayor who is Muslim,Sir Sadiq Khan,wants to institute Sharia law.
Sharia is the religious and ethical legal system of Islam.
‘I look at London,where you have a terrible mayor,terrible,terrible mayor,and it’s been so changed,’ Trump said
‘Now they want to go to Sharia law but you’re in a different country,you can’t do that.’
A spokesperson for Sadiq said ‘we are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response’.
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‘London is the greatest city in the world,safer than major US cities,and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here,’ stated the spokesperson.
US President Donald Trump (left) speaks during the General Debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York (Picture: EPA)
Trump labeled climate change ‘a con job’ and spent about 10 minutes going off about ‘the global warming hoax’.
‘You know,it used to be global cooling. If you look back years ago,in the 1920s and the 1930s,they said global cooling will kill the world. We have to do something. Then they said global warming will kill the world,but then it started getting cooler,’ he said.
‘So now they could 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.’
He claimed without providing evidence that climate change predictions ‘made by the United Nations and many others,often for bad reasons,were wrong’.
‘It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,in my opinion,climate change,’ he said.
Trump claimed that the climate change rhetoric was ‘made by stupid people’ and ‘if you don’t get away from this green scam,your country is going to fail’. In reality,the average temperature worldwide has increased by more than 1 degree Celsius since the beginning of the industrial era.
President Donald Trump delivered a rambling speech at the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City (Picture: Getty Images)
Trump ranted on migration ‘destroying’ Europe which he said ‘has been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody has ever seen before’.
‘Your countries are being ruined by uncontrolled immigration,’ he said,adding that it will be the ‘death of Western Europe if something is not done immediately’.
The US president also accused the UN of ‘funding an assault on Western countries and their borders’ and ‘supporting people that are illegally coming into the United States’.
He touted his immigration policies,which he said have stopped all migrants from entering the US illegally.
‘I’m really good at this stuff,’ he said. ‘Your countries are going to hell.’
His claim that no one is crossing the border illegally now is not true,as Customs and Border Protection reported that there were more than 9,700 apprehensions at the US-Mexico border in August. By comparison there were more than 107,000 apprehensions last August under the Biden administration.
President Donald Trump (left) and First Lady Melania Trump (right) arrive to attend the 80th United Nations General Assembly (Picture: Reuters)
Trump called Christianity the ‘most persecuted religion’ in the world.
‘Let us defend free speech and free expression. Let us protect religious liberty,including for the most persecuted religion on the planet today,it’s called Christianity,’ he said.
‘And let us safeguard our sovereignty and cherished qualities that have made each of our nations so special,incredible and extraordinary.’
The US president urged world leaders to embrace principles that the US was founded on almost 250 years ago,including religious liberty and freedom of speech.
Just days earlier,Trump said that the licenses of TV networks airing negative coverage of him should be revoked.
Additionally,Trump and his administration have defended the Federal Communications Commission chairman’s threats to take action against ABC News over remarks host Jimmy Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk’s killer. Kimmel was briefly suspended by the network for his remarks after the conservative activist’s assassination.
President Donald Trump (left) and First Lady Melania Trump arrive to attend the 80th United Nations General Assembly and go up an escalator (Picture: Reuters)
A controversial moment unfolded even before Trump began his address. As he and First Lady Melania Trump arrived at the UN headquarters in the morning and stepped on an elevator,it suddenly stopped.
The president looked around and after a few moments,Melania started walking up the steps. He included complaints about the escalator during his speech.
‘All I got from the United Nations was an escalator on the way up that stopped right in the middle,’ he said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt followed up the remark by writing on X: ‘If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on,they need to be fired and investigated immediately.’
UN secretary general spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said a White House videographer may have triggered a safety mechanism: ‘The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.’
But conspiracy theories swirled on social media that someone halted the elevator on the Trumps on purpose.
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