US president wraps up marathon assembly address

“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.”

Trump described immigration and climate change policies as a “double-tailed monster” that was ruining Europe.

He warned Europe that migration issues are “destroying your heritage”.

“If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail,” he declared.

“I’m the president of the United States, but I worry about Europe. I love Europe, I love the people of Europe. And I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake.”

After going well beyond his speaking time limit — 15 minutes — and continuing to decry “the global warming hoax”, Trump has wrapped up his address.

He claimed that more than 175,000 people die due to heat in Europe each year, because energy costs are so expensive that they can’t turn on an air conditioner. “What is that all about?” he asked.

Trump also touched on his efforts to control crime in certain US states, deploying the National Guard in Washington DC. He declared it now a “totally safe city again”, where “wives can walk in the middle of the street” safely.

And he explicitly linked Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, to drug trafficking and human trafficking operations carried out by Tren de Aragua, the transnational criminal organisation.

In one of his closing comments, he said: “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.”

The president described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”.

“I want to stop seeing them ruining their English and Scottish countryside with windmills and massive solar panels that go seven miles by seven miles taking away farmland,” he said.

Trump has long railed against wind turbines which were constructed near his Turnberry golf course in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

“If you don’t get away from this green scam your country is going to fail,” he went on.

Addressing the war in Ukraine, Trump called on Europe again to “step it up” and stop purchasing oil and gas from Russia. “It was very embarrassing to them when I found out about it, I can tell you that.

“They can’t be doing what they’re doing. They’re buying oil and gas from Russia while they’re fighting Russia. It’s embarrassing to them.”

Trump said he found out about the “inexcusable” trend two weeks ago.

“We’re going to discuss it today with the European nations, all gathered here. I’m sure they’re thrilled to hear me speak about it, but that’s the way it is.”

Trump said “Europe is in serious trouble”, telling leaders that their “countries are being ruined” by a “force of illegal aliens”.

“It’s not sustainable, and because they choose to be politically correct, they’re doing nothing about it,” he said, attacking the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“I look at London where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it has been so changed. So changed. Now they want to go to sharia law,” he claimed.

“Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe if something isn’t done immediately. This cannot be sustained.”

Sharia law is an Islamic legal system, implemented in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. There is no evidence of it being used in British policy.

Trump said he was pushing for Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages, and blamed the terror organisation for “repeatedly rejecting reasonable offers to make peace”.

“We can’t forget October 7th,” he said, adding that “we have to stop the war in Gaza immediately”. “We’ve got to get the hostages back. We want all 20 back.”

He addressed the decision by several powerful nations, including the UK, to recognise a Palestinian state.

Trump called it a “reward” for Hamas, and said those who want to end the conflict should instead be united in the message: “release the hostages now”. Applause unfolded in the audience after this last comment.

The president acknowledged the six years since his last address at the UN: “Since that day, the guns of war have shattered the peace I forged on two continents.”

He claimed to have ended seven wars, between; Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Trump repeated an often-made claim that his peacemaking efforts merit a Nobel Peace Prize. “It’s sad I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” he added.

“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump asked rhetorically. He claimed all the UN does is write “strongly worded letters” and speak in “empty words.”

Trump soon turned to praise the US economy and soaring stock market, claiming that wages were rising at their fastest rate in 60 years and more than $17 trillion was being invested in the US.

“We’ve implemented the largest tax cuts in American history and the largest regulation cuts in American history, making this once and again the best country on Earth to do business,” he said.

Speaking on immigration, Trump said he had “successfully repelled a colossal invasion”.

“For the last four months, and that’s four months in a row, the number of illegal aliens admitted and entering our country has been zero,” he added.

“If you look back just a year ago, it was millions and millions of people pouring in from all over the world, from prisons, from mental institutions, drug dealers. All over the world they came.”

President Trump has begun his speech in front of the assembly, telling the audience his teleprompter isn’t working and saying hello to his wife, Melania, on the sidelines.

“I can only say that whoever operates this teleprompter is in big trouble,” he said, to a ripple of laughter from the assembly.

Trump touted the achievements of his second term, saying that he had reversed the declines of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

“Today just eight months into our administration, we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world, and there’s nowhere even close,” he said. “This is indeed the golden age of America.”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, was the first world leader to address the assembly, and began his speech by taking aim at “anti-democratic forces” and “aspiring autocrats”.

“Authoritarianism is strengthened when we fail to act in the face of arbitrary acts,” he said. “Throughout the world, anti-democratic forces are trying to subjugate institutions and stifle freedoms. They worship violence, praise ignorance, act as physical and digital militias, and restrict the press.”

Lula referenced Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, saying that he was “investigated, indicted, trialled and held accountable for his actions in a meticulous process.”

The Trump administration imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Brazilian imports after Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in office following his electoral loss to da Silva.

Trump and Melania have arrived at the assembly ahead of his speech.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has teased it as “one of his biggest foreign policy speeches yet”.

“The globalists will be on notice,” she added.

Trump will speak after President Lula of Brazil, who is delivering his speech now.

Guterres called for “stepped-up action and ambition” on climate change from the Group of 20 industrialised nations ahead of the COP30 climate conference in Brazil in November.

He added that the development of artificial intelligence was “outpacing regulation and responsibility”, and is concentrated “in a few hands”.

After delivering a bleak assessment of the current state of the world, Guterres concluded his speech on a defiant note. “No matter the challenge, no matter the obstacle, no matter the hour, we must, and we will, overcome.”

António Guterres said that “the horrors” in Gaza are approaching a third “monstrous” year.

“They are the result of decisions that defy basic humanity,” the secretary-general said. “The scale of death and destruction are beyond any other conflict in my years as secretary-general.”

Guterres added: “Nothing can justify the horrific Hamas terror attacks of October 7 and the taking of hostages, those of which I have repeatedly condemned. And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and the systematic destruction of Gaza. We know what is needed. Permanent ceasefire now. All the hostages released now. Full humanitarian access now. And we must not relent in the only viable answer to sustainable Middle East peace, a two-state solution.”

António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, opened his address to the general assembly by telling world leaders that the principles of the UN were “under siege”.

He said: “We have our work cut out for us. Our ability to carry out that work is being cut from us. We have entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering. The principles of the United Nations that you have established are under siege. Listen. The pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality, and indifference.”

Guterres cited the wars in Sudan, Ukraine, and in Gaza, adding that impunity was the “mother of chaos”.

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, foreshadowed Trump’s speech to the general assembly by characterising the United Nations as a “feckless” organisation.

“It’s just a place where once a year a bunch of people meet and give speeches and write out a bunch of letters and statements but not a lot of good, important action is happening,” Rubio said in an interview on Fox News, adding: “I think it’s emblematic of how feckless the UN has become as an organisation.”

Rubio said he expected the president to “challenge the UN to find its meaning and its purpose and its utility as an organisation because it doesn’t seem to be doing the job”.

The US secretary of state claimed that Britain and France have recognised a Palestinian state because they have been “flooded with foreigners” who are “insisting their governments do these sorts of things”.

Speaking on Fox News, Marco Rubio said: “These countries are doing it frankly because of domestic political pressure in their own countries.

“Because of migration policies, these countries have been flooded with foreigners who have become politically active and are insisting their government do these sorts of things. That’s what they’re responding to. It’s irrelevant, it’s gonna get a little bit of attention, but there is no Palestinian state.”

The UK Foreign Office has said that recognition was to protect the viability of a two-state solution and create a path towards lasting peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people.

“Having recognised the state of Israel in 1950, the government believes it can no longer credibly continue to support the two-state solution without recognising both states,” an FCDO statement said.

The US Secret Service on Tuesday said it had dismantled a network of more than 100,000 Sim cards that could have crashed New York’s telecommunications network, linking the threat to “nation-state” actors.

“In addition to carrying out anonymous telephonic threats, these devices could be used to conduct a wide range of telecommunications attacks,” the agency said in a statement. “This includes disabling cell phone towers, enabling denial of services attacks and facilitating anonymous, encrypted communication between potential threat actors and criminal enterprises.”

It said the devices it seized were located within a 35-mile radius of the UN general assembly. “Given the timing, location and potential for significant disruption to New York telecommunications posed by these devices, the agency moved quickly to disrupt this network,” the statement added.

It said that while forensic examination of the devices and a broader investigation was ongoing, “early analysis indicates cellular communications between nation-state threat actors and individuals that are known to federal law enforcement”.

President Macron was held up by President Trump’s motorcade on Monday night as New York police refused to let him pass as he left the UN general assembly.

The French president stepped out of his vehicle and was left standing in the street as officers closed the road for Trump’s convoy.

The incident, captured on video, quickly went viral online — showing Macron appearing both amused and slightly exasperated at the unexpected delay while fans try to take a selfie with him. In footage shared by the French media outlet Brut, a police officer is heard apologising to Macron, saying: “I’m sorry, Mr President, everything is blocked right now.”

Brut reported that Macron called Trump on his mobile to try and resolve the situation.

President Macron announced that France recognised Palestinian statehood at a meeting he convened with Saudi Arabia on Monday.

It comes after the move by Britain, Australia, Canada, Portugal and other nations to do so ahead of the UN assembly, as a response to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Israel and the US have criticised the recognition as “rewarding Hamas” and have rejected the viability of a Palestinian state, despite previous negotiations.

A two-state solution was the bedrock of the US-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords, but the prospects for such a solution has since faded.

The UK is set to push for a plan for peace in the Middle East at the assembly after recognising the state of Palestine on Sunday.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to use the summit to address civilian suffering in war-torn Gaza and strengthen “the international consensus on our pathway for peace in the Middle East”.

She will hold bilateral meetings to advance elements of the peace plan, including security measures to ensure Hamas has no role in the future governance of Gaza, according to the Foreign Office. Sir Keir Starmer will not be attending this year’s summit, but did address the general assembly last year.

• Read in full: Decision to recognise Palestine is borne of urgency and principle

Trump, who is originally from New York, is due to spend less than a day in the city for the week-long UN summit.

One of his few other one-on-one meetings will be with Argentina’s right-wing President Milei, an ideological ally to whose government the United States is considering offering an economic lifeline.

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump would hold a multilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan while at the gathering.

Trump will be the second world leader to address the general assembly on Tuesday after President Lula of Brazil, who claimed not to be on speaking terms with the US president.

In a recent interview, Lula said that he and Trump had “no relationship”, and that he had found out about tariffs imposed by the US on Brazilian exports through the media.

When pushed on why he had not just tried to pick up the phone, Lula said: “I never tried that call because he never wanted to have a conversation.”

Trump will also meet with Ukrainian leader President Zelensky on Tuesday, who is expected to call for the US president to impose long-threatened new sanctions on Russia.

However, previewing the talks with Zelensky, the secretary of state Marco Rubio said last week Trump was not ready to pressure Putin. He said that without him “there’s no one left in the world that could possibly mediate” on Ukraine.

This will be the second time Trump and Zelensky have met since the US president invited President Putin to Alaska. Trump’s meeting with the Russian p resident has failed to slow Russia’s barrage of attacks on Ukraine in the past month, as fears have risen in the West, with drone or air incursions in Nato members Poland, Estonia, and Romania.

Trump acknowledged last week that Putin had “really let me down.”

Trump will describe “how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward constructive vision for the world,” according to the White House.

The president’s speech will cover his “historic accomplishments in just eight months, including the ending of seven global wars and conflicts”, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said on Monday.

It will also involve “touting the renewal of American strength around the world“.

President Trump will address the United Nations for the first time since his return to office on Tuesday, and is expected to denounce “globalist institutions” in his speech to world leaders.

Since his inauguration, Trump has signed executive orders removing the US from the World Health Organisation, the UN Human Rights Council, and ordered a review of US involvement in hundreds of intergovernmental organisations to determine whether they align with his “America First” agenda.

The US president is expected to address the annual gathering at about 9.50am local time (2.50pm BST).