Trump Unloads on ‘Woke’ UN
By Joe Guzzardi
Even President Donald Trump’s millions of critics cannot deny one central aspect of his character that has kept him at the forefront of U.S. presidential politics for more than a decade: Trump takes all questions, even from the most hostile reporters who have written bias stories about him. When Trump finishes his reply, everyone in the room knows exactly where he stands. Most politicians, as they climb the political ladder, encourage questions but then do their best to dodge actually answering them. Trump breaks this mold.
Trump’s candid speaking style enabled him to secure the 2016 GOP presidential nomination against overwhelming odds. The 13½-month primary campaign began on March 23, 2015, when Texas Senator Ted Cruz entered the race, and ended on May 4, 2016, when John Kasich, former Ohio governor and nine-term U.S. Representative, conceded to Trump’s inevitable victory.
Throughout the campaign, Trump proved nimbler on his feet than his 17 opponents, all of whom had more direct political experience than the newcomer. His rivals included Cruz, Kasich, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and former three-term New York Governor George Pataki. The New York Times described the presidential field as “tough and talented.”
After defeating his Republican opponents and his Democratic nemesis Hillary Clinton in debates hosted by NBC, CBS, and Fox News never-Trumper Mike Wallace, Trump won the presidency. His electoral successes shared a common denominator: straight talk that audiences might disagree with but would always leave them knowing exactly where he stood.
This background sets the stage for Trump’s approach to international forums like the United Nations General Assembly, where member nations may have anticipated his direct style when he spoke to them recently but were likely unprepared for the bluntness of his remarks. Trump addressed two of what he considered the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change, which he condemned as a fraudulent, budget-draining “con job,” and illegal immigration, which he referred to as “migration.”
Speaking from his position of strength—having implemented strict border policies that shut down the southwest border—the president urged assembled nations to stop “ruining” their countries with unchecked that facilitate illegal immigration. Trump criticized the UN, London mayor Sadiq Khan, European countries facilitating “uncontrolled migration,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, former President Joe Biden, renewable energy initiatives, and what he called the “climate change hoax—the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” He promoted an anti-globalist agenda throughout his remarks.
“Europe is in serious trouble,” Trump declared. “They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe, and nobody’s doing anything to change it or get them out. It’s not sustainable. Because they choose to be politically correct, they’re doing absolutely nothing about it.”
Trump hammered the UN for “creating new problems for us to solve,” referencing its refugee agency UNHCR, which receives billions in U.S. taxpayer funding and provides cash debit cards to illegal aliens along migration routes, further enabling a mass immigration crisis that American citizens neither want nor can afford.
Citing statistics from the Council of Europe, Trump stated: “In 2024, almost 50% of inmates in German prisons were foreign nationals or migrants. In Austria, the number was 53%. In Greece, it was 54%. And in Switzerland—beautiful Switzerland—72% of prison inmates are from outside of Switzerland.”
Trump specifically criticized London’s Mayor Khan, calling him “terrible” and claiming that London “has been so changed” that “now they want to go to Sharia law, but you’re in a different country—you can’t do that.” He argued that both immigration policies and “suicidal energy ideas” would “be the death of Western Europe if something is not done immediately.”
Trump emphasized the importance of national sovereignty: “What makes the world so beautiful is that each country is unique, but to stay this way, every sovereign nation must have the right to control their own borders. You have the right to control your borders, as we do now, and to limit the numbers of migrants entering their countries—paid for by the people of that nation who built that particular country with their blood, sweat, tears, and money. Now they’re being ruined.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage offered perhaps the most insightful commentary, suggesting that with Trump, people should “never take what he says literally, ever, on anything, but always take everything he says seriously. Farage continued, “He makes a comment and you might disagree with the tone, you might disagree with the context, you might disagree with the number that he puts out, but you find that what he says has a point.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
