DONALD TRUMP HAS claimed European countries are “going to hell” because of immigration, as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in six years.

“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders,” Trump said in an almost hour-long speech.

“Your countries are going to hell,” he added, attacking London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital.

“Your countries are being ruined by migration,” said Trump, who said he “worries” for Europe and telling the UN that it is not sustainable. 

He also called climate change the “greatest con job ever”, adding that immigration and the “global warming hoax” are “destroying” Europe.

“Climate change – it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” he said. “(The) carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they’re heading down a path of total destruction.”

Following his criticism of green policies, Trump promoted non-renewable energy sources in America. He went on to state that it was “embarrassing” for Europe that it was fighting Russia over its war in Ukraine, yet Europe is also buying energy from Russia. 

He said the United Nations orchestrated an “invasion” of immigrants into the West, pointing to cash support it had supplied to in-need migrants.

The speech had undertones of conspiracy theories which have become popular on the political right in the US, such as the “Great Replacement” theory, with Trump using language such as “experiment” and “invasion” to discuss immigration. 

The conspiracy posits that the native (white) people of Europe are being replaced by non-white immigrants, often Arab or African people, and that this is orchestrated by a group of powerful, clandestine elites.

Criticism

The US president blasted the UN for failing to help peace efforts and mocked the quality of the headquarters building.

“The UN has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it — it has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to it,” Trump said in an address in which he complained about a broken escalator at the New York headquarters.

Trump said that, in comparison, his role in ending “seven wars” could warrant a Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking about Gaza, Trump said “we have to stop the war in Gaza, immediately”, hitting out at Hamas for not yet releasing all hostages. 

He also took aim at the countries that have recognised the State of Palestine at the UN this week.

The US president criticised the recent recognition of the State of Palestinian by several UN members. France became the latest country to recognise Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations yesterday.

He said: “Some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists for their atrocities. This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including October 7″.

It is Trump’s second time seeing Zelenskyy since the US leader invited Russian President Vladimir Putin on 15 August to Alaska, a meeting that broke Moscow’s isolation in the West but yielded no breakthrough on Ukraine.

Discussing Russia’s Ukraine war, Trump called China and India “primary funders”.

Trump was expected to attack the “globalist” agenda at his return to the UN.

In his second term as president, he has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organisation and the UN climate body, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.

Following his speech, Trump took to Truth Social to say that he believed it had been received “very well”.

“It was a great honor to speak before the United Nations. I believe the speech was very well received. It focused very much on energy and migration/immigration,” he wrote.

“The teleprompter was broken and the escalator came to a sudden hault as we were ridding up to the podium, but both of those events probably made the speech more interesting than it would have been otherwise. It is always an honor to speak at the United Nations, even if, their equipment is somewhat faulty. Make America Great Again!”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin reacts to Donald Trump’s UN speech.

He says he’s not overly surprised by the views he expressed by the US president. pic.twitter.com/RIzWz9ucTc

— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) September 23, 2025

Reacting to the remarks by the US president, the Taoiseach said “nothing surprising or new” in what Trump had to say in his speech, with Micheál Martin stating that he has heard this commentary before from Trump.

He defended Europe, stating that it is a “bastion” of good quality of living, where there is liberty, freedom of speech and a good standard of living.

Martin said he doesn’t agree with Trump’s perspective when it comes to migration, but added, that Europe has its challenges “just like everybody else”.

“The same views have been articulated before by President Trump. I don’t have to agree with those views,” he told the media. 

“Those views reflect views not just in America but across the world. I don’t agree with them. We don’t have open borders. So the premise that Europe has open borders is not the case,” said Martin.

“Ireland doesn’t have open borders. We have we control of our borders,” said the Taoiseach, though he added that the process must be improved in terms of its firmness and also its timelines. 

Speaking about the US president’s approach to climate change, the Taoiseach said he is convinced by the science-based evidence, but acknowledged that Trump is not.

“Europe has experience of renewables being very impactful,” said Martin.  

The Taoiseach welcomed the remarks Trump made about Gaza, pointing out that the US president did indicate he wanted the war to end, and also the war in Ukraine.

“It is the wars of the world that is pulling the world down,” said Martin, who said these wars must end.

With additional reporting from AFP