MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
President Trump had a stark message for the United Nations today.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Your countries are going to hell.
KELLY: He was speaking about what he calls a crisis of migration. And Trump accused the United Nations of making it worse by supporting migrants. He also says the U.N. is not living up to its potential. Many countries might agree with that, though perhaps for different reasons than Trump cited. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: In a nearly hour-long address, President Trump called climate change a hoax, ridiculed countries trying to solve it. And he said he thinks the biggest problem in the world is, quote, "uncontrolled migration."
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TRUMP: It's uncontrolled. Your countries are being ruined. The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.
KELEMEN: The United Nations Refugee Agency does support migrants uprooted by war, and the U.S. used to accept refugees who go through a long U.N. and U.S. vetting process. But Trump has put a stop to that, allowing in very few refugees - mostly white farmers from South Africa. He told the U.N. that countries should follow the U.S. lead in stopping migration.
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TRUMP: In fact, they're not even coming anymore because they know they can't get through. But what took place is totally unacceptable. The U.N. is supposed to stop invasions, not create them and not finance them.
KELEMEN: While Trump claimed credit yet again for ending seven wars and suggested he should get a Nobel Peace Prize for that, most other speakers focused on the ones he hasn't been able to solve - Russia's war against Ukraine and Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
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KING ABDULLAH II: The war in Gaza marks one of the darkest moments in this institution's history.
KELEMEN: That's King Abdullah of Jordan, who accuses Israel of burying the idea of a Palestinian state by expanding settlements in the West Bank and destroying much of Gaza in the war against Hamas.
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ABDULLAH II: Almost two years in and the cruelty of this military campaign continues unabated.
KELEMEN: France and Saudi Arabia co-hosted a conference on Monday to try to boost the prospects of a Palestinian state. More than 150 countries have now recognized one - a move Israel and Trump call a gift to Hamas.
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TRUMP: But instead of giving in to Hamas' ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message - release the hostages now. Just release the hostages now.
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KELEMEN: President Trump had been promising to end the war in Gaza on Day 1. The same is true for the war in Ukraine.
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TRUMP: I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one.
KELEMEN: And he says Russia thought it would take just three days to take over Ukraine, but that didn't happen either.
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TRUMP: It was supposed to be just a quick little skirmish. It's not making Russia look good. It's making them look bad.
KELEMEN: After meeting Ukraine's president, Trump said that he now thinks Ukraine can win back all of its territory. At times, President Trump got personal in his speech. He railed against Brazil's leftist president. But before he did, Trump described his brief encounter with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
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TRUMP: I saw him, he saw me, and we embraced. And then I'm saying, can you believe I'm going to be saying this in just two minutes?
KELEMEN: Trump has imposed tariffs and sanctions on Brazil in part over a case against Lula's predecessor, Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro. But in that brief moment - 39 seconds - Trump said he had good chemistry with Lula and agreed to meet him next week. These kind of encounters are what makes the U.N. General Assembly so vital, says U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He met with Trump for the first time and praised his efforts to bring about peace.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES: You have selected peace as a central objective of your mandate.
TRUMP: It's true.
GUTERRES: And you have been...
KELEMEN: The secretary general said the U.N. is ready to help, though Trump joked earlier in the day that his first impression of the headquarters was of a broken escalator and a nonworking teleprompter. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the United Nations. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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