SRINAGAR: US President Donald Trump used his address to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to repeat his claim that he has “ended seven unendable wars” during his second term, while unleashing a scathing critique of the world body as an institution of “empty words.”
“In a period of just seven months, I have ended seven unendable wars,” Trump told delegates in the General Assembly Hall. “They said they were unendable, some were going for 31 years, one was 36 years. I ended seven wars and in all cases they were raging with countless thousands of people being killed. No other president or leader has ever done anything close to that.”
The “wars” Trump listed as having resolved included Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo.
He criticised the United Nations for playing no role in these developments. “The UN has such tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” he said. “It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve wars.”
The US president’s remarks drew a mixed reaction in the hall, where several leaders listened impassively and some groaned when Trump pivoted to attack Europe’s “double-tailed monster” of migration and green energy policies. He warned that European nations risk “economic and cultural ruin” if they continued with what he called “green energy scams” and open migration policies.
Trump’s speech comes against the backdrop of volatile global crises, including wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. While he has struggled to deliver on campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump has pressed his case for recognition as a global peacemaker. He has repeatedly invoked his “seven wars” claim since May, when he first announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after US mediation.
That claim was promptly rejected by both countries. India has maintained that the ceasefire with Pakistan was achieved through direct talks between their militaries, without US involvement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament that no foreign leader asked India to stop Operation Sindoor, which was launched after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also backed India’s position, telling Al Jazeera that “India never agreed to any third-party mediation.”
Despite those denials, Trump returned to the theme on Tuesday, framing it as proof of his diplomatic prowess and contrasting it with the inaction of the United Nations. “It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” he said.
Trump also used his speech to justify recent US military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and on suspected Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats earlier this month. Human rights advocates have accused his administration of authorising extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, but Trump defended the operations as necessary to protect American interests.
The president is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and leaders from Argentina and the European Union, as well as a group session with officials from Middle Eastern and Asian countries. Later in the evening, he will host a reception for more than 100 world leaders before returning to Washington.
Even as France and other nations used the General Assembly to push for recognition of a Palestinian state, Trump warned against what he called “rewarding Hamas terrorists” and insisted the focus should remain on securing the release of 48 hostages still held in Gaza.
Trump ended his address by once again hinting at his ambition for a Nobel Peace Prize. “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize,” he said. “But for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars.”
