 "From India-Pak war claim to blame for Ukraine: Takeaways from Trump’s UNGA speech")
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The remarks were a well-worn retread of many of the US president’s domestic addresses.
Trump slammed his predecessor Joe Biden yet again, railed against illegal immigration, and claimed credit for ending a number of wars including the conflict between India and Pakistan – which New Delhi has repeatedly denied.
He also slammed India and China, claiming that they were ‘funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.’ He also spoke about how he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize and complained about the teleprompter not working at the start of his speech.
Trump spoke for well over 45 minutes – nearly thrice his allotted time of 15 minutes.
Trump slams Biden yet again
Trump began by noting that his teleprompter was not working. “I can only say whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble,” Trump warned apparently in jest.
The US president began by immediately taking aim at the previous Joe Biden administration.
“Six years have passed since I last stood in this grand hall and addressed a world that was prosperous and at peace in my first term,”
Trump said. “Since that day, the guns of war have shattered the peace I forged on two continents, an era of calm and stability gave way to one of the great crises of our time, and here in the United States, four years of weakness, lawlessness and radicalism under the last administration delivered our nation into a repeated set of disasters.”
Trump recently attacked Biden, who is dealing with stage 4 cancer, personally, referring to him as a ‘son of a bitch’ and a bad person.
‘America in its golden age’
Trump claimed America is in its ‘golden age’.“One year ago our country was in deep trouble… but just eight months into my administration, we’re the hottest country in the world. This is indeed the golden image of America,” Trump said.
He claimed the country was rapidly reversing the economic calamity it had suffered under the previous administration. Unfortunately for Trump, all the economic indicators point to the fact that Trump was left an extremely healthy economy by the Biden administration. Most experts say his tariffs and policies are currently wrecking the economy.
Trump recently fired the Labour statistics chief after seeing jobs numbers he did not like. Trump claimed without evidence that the numbers were rigged to hurt his administration. Trump wrongly claimed that energy prices, petrol prices and grocery prices are trending downwards.
He also claimed that inflation has been defeated – which must be news to Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell, whom Trump has repeatedly insulted and mused firing from his job. Powell in fact has previously warned that Trump’s tariffs risk sending inflation, which has been slowly rising in recent months, even higher.
“The effects of tariffs on consumer prices are now clearly visible. We expect those effects to accumulate over coming months, with high uncertainty about timing and amounts,” Powell recently warned.
Wrongly takes credit for ending India-Pakistan conflict
Trump yet again tried to take credit for ending a number of wars including the India-Pakistan conflict. New Delhi has repeatedly dismissed this claim by the US president, saying no third party intervened in the matter.
India had launched Operation Sindoor in May as a response to the Pahalgam terror attack in April which left 26 dead.
“I have ended seven wars in seven months,” Trump claimed. “This includes Cambodia-Thailand, Congo-Rwanda, India-Pakistan, Israel-Iran, Egypt-Ethiopia, Armenia-Azerbaijan.”
He said it was unfortunate that he had to do it rather than the United Nations. Trump also attempted to campaign publicly once again for the Nobel Prize. The US president has displayed an obsession with the prestigious award ever since it was awarded to his predecessor Barack Obama in 2008.
Tariffs on Russia, slams India and China
Trump also warned that he was prepared to impose heavy tariffs on Russia if it refused to end the Ukraine war.
“In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs,” Trump said.
Trump, who had repeatedly praised Vladimir Putin over the years as a ‘tough leader’ and a ‘brilliant guy’, seems to have grown tired of his Russian counterpart as the war in Ukraine drags on. Trump, remember, came into office vowing to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
Trump said the relationship between himself and Putin “had always been a good one”. He added that Russia’s war in Ukraine is “not making Russia look good”.
Trump also yet again accused India and China of funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and India are funding the war in Ukraine. Some NATO nations are also doing this. Some European nations are purchasing oil from Russia and fighting it. It’s embarrassing,” Trump said.
Trump had imposed a 25 per cent tariff on India plus an additional 25 per cent for buying Russian oil. New Delhi had hit back at Washington and the West, pointing to their own dealings with Russia and slamming them for hypocrisy. India had said there could be no compromise on the national interest.
China too had sided with India over the tariffs, warning that America was behaving like a ‘big bully’. The Kremlin, meanwhile, had said that nations should be free to choose their own trading partners.
Trump’s tariffs come in the backdrop of talks over a trade deal between India and the United States stalling – to the frustration of a number of senior White House officials including the president himself. India had drawn a number of red lines, particularly in its dairy and agriculture sectors, which it has vowed not to cross. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the tariffs at a rally, said he was willing to pay any political price for the sake of the national interest.
Trump also took aim at a number of European nations who continue to buy gas and energy from Russia.
“But for those tariffs to be effective, European nations would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures. They have to immediately cease all energy purchases from Russia,” Trump said.
Trump slams UN
He also slammed the United Nations, once again referencing the broken teleprompter.
“These are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” Trump said.
“I didn’t think of it at the time because I was too busy working to save millions of lives, that is the saving and stopping of these wars. But later, I realised that the United Nations wasn’t there for us.
“That being the case, what is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential… but it’s not even coming close to living up to its potential. For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up,” he added.
Rails against illegal immigration
Trump returned to his common theme of railing against illegal immigration, which has been an obsession during his second term.
“The ridiculous open border policy of the Biden administration was removed, and I made sure the criminals who entered our country were sent back,” Trump said.
The Trump administration has made several moves to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration to the United States.
He told other leaders they were in the “exact same situation” and that it is “destroying your country and you have to do something about it”.
Trump slammed European countries for their “open borders experiment”.
“Your countries are going to hell. In America, we’ve taken bold action to swiftly shut down uncontrolled migration once we started detaining and deporting everyone who crossed the border and removing illegal aliens from the United States, they simply stopped coming,” Trump said.
He lauded El Salvador “for the successful and professional job they’ve done in receiving and jailing so many criminals that entered our country”.
The Trump administration has come under fire for deporting hundreds of immigrants, many of them non-violent, to a maximum-security facility in El Salvador.
Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Gaza war
Trump also claimed that the United States had taken out Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon.
“Three months ago, in Operation Midnight Hammer, seven American B2 bombers dropped 30,000-pound bombs each on Iran’s key nuclear facility, totally obliterating everything. No other country on Earth could have done what we did,” Trump said.
According to US experts, America likely set back Iran’s nuclear programme by only a few months.
Trump also claimed that the war in Gaza must end immediately.
“We have to stop the war in Gaza immediately. We have to stop it,” Trump said. “We have to get it done. We have to negotiate peace,” he added.
America has completely backed the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war in Gaza. Many experts have warned that Israel’s actions fit the textbook definition of a genocide.
Trump also said Hamas needed to return the hostages immediately. “We have to get the hostages back. We want all 20 back. We have to get them back now. We want actually the 38 dead bodies back too.”
Climate change con job, Sharia law in London
Trump also claimed that climate change is the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. Trump called it a “fake energy catastrophe”.
“The carbon footprint is a hoax, made up by people with evil intentions and they’re heading down a path of total destruction,” Trump said. “Everybody is doing it because they want to be politically correct.”
His remarks are contrary to the overwhelming consensus from the scientific community that climate change is indeed occurring and is man-made.
Trump has previously claimed that climate change is a hoax by China. He has also railed against windmills, claiming without evidence that they ‘cause cancer’.
He also took aim at green and renewable energy. “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump warned.
Trump also falsely claimed that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was trying to impose Sharia law in the city. “I look at London where you
have a terrible mayor. A terrible, terrible mayor,” Trump said. He claimed that Khan was trying to impose “Sharia law” in the city.
“It’s really a different country, you can’t do that.”
With inputs from agencies.
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