Trump to address UN General Assembly as US allies seek answers on Ukraine, Gaza war Francesca Chambers, USA TODAYSeptember 23, 2025 at 4:08 AM 0 UNITED NATIONS – When President Donald Trump addresses the UN General Assembly on Sept.
- - Trump to address UN General Assembly as US allies seek answers on Ukraine, Gaza war
Francesca Chambers, USA TODAYSeptember 23, 2025 at 4:08 AM
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UNITED NATIONS – When President Donald Trump addresses the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23 for the first time since returning to office, the businessman at the height of his political power will likely have little to offer a weakened United Nations and worried allies.
Trump is expected to use his platform to take a victory lap on a handful of smaller conflicts he says he solved as U.S. allies seek answers about Gaza, Ukraine, and America's role in the overseas wars.
"Nobody's done a better job than I've done on world peace. Nobody's settled so many wars as I have," Trump said on Sept. 19. "You know, I've been here probably a little bit more than eight months and I've settled seven. And that doesn't include the destruction of a vast potential nuclear disaster in Iran."
The main concern that allies have right now is what one European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, described as unpredictability coming from the United States in trade relations and military support for Ukraine.
What is Trump's strategy for the Middle East, the person questioned. Will he respond to countries such as France, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and Belgium using the annual gathering to recognize a Palestinian state?
"I hope we hear not only condemnation of aggressors but also President Trump's idea for the international order," Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said in an interview, hours after he accused Russia of a "lust for domination" at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. "This body is not ideal, but it's the only one we've got. And alternatives are probably worse."
Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, but Eastern European countries accuse Moscow of illegally invading their airspace.
Trump initially cast a recent incursion of 19 Russian drones into Poland as a mistake. But last week, after Russian fighter jets crossed into Estonia, Trump said he'd consider helping the NATO allies.
The president was right to try "a personal approach" with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring about an end to the 3-year-old war, Sikorski said. "We supported him in that."
But since his August meeting with Trump in Alaska, the rate of assaults on Ukraine and the number of breaches of NATO airspace have risen, he said.
"So we hope that President Trump will draw the conclusion that personal diplomacy unfortunately hasn't worked and that he needs to change Putin's calculus by applying pressure on Russia and by helping Ukraine," Sikorski said.
Trump has said he'll put tariffs on nations that are purchasing Russian oil as soon as the European Union and NATO allies fully cut Moscow off. Those efforts have been hampered by Slovakia, Hungary, and Turkey, which are still heavily reliant.
EU Council President António Costa told journalists on Sept. 22 that the EU is working closely with the United States on sanctions. He stressed that the EU has reduced its imports from Russia by 80% and that the bloc is committed to zeroing the amount.
"We have at least two member states that they have, not physical alternative to easy supply to replace the supplies from Russia," Costa said.
The main priority of the EU at the moment is to put pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire and enter into negotiations to end the war, he said.
"We are very concerned with the answer of President Putin to the initiative from President Trump. Because after his Alaska meeting, we don't have any sign that effectively Russia is keen to negotiate a peace agreement," Costa said.
US allies recognize a Palestinian state
Before Trump's New York arrival, allies sought to use the United Nations gathering to bring attention to another conflict — the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Dozens of world leaders attended a conference led by France and Saudi Arabia to show their support for an independent Palestinian state.
Trump has acknowledged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is losing the battle of public opinion in the war against Hamas. A body backed by the United Nations said last month that a famine is taking place in Gaza.
His administration has thrown its support behind Netanyahu, though, as Israel carries out its ground offensive in Gaza City. At a news conference in the United Kingdom last week, Trump said the world cannot forget about Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
European officials insisted in the lead-up to the gathering that the point of the symbolic conference was not to put pressure on Trump. Rather, they said, it's based on a belief that security in the region hinges on the process.
"We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the U.N. conference.
They also say recognition is not a blank check: Hamas cannot be part of a future Palestinian government, and the militant group must release every Israeli hostage.
U.S. officials say recognizing a Palestinian state is making it harder, not easier, to get Hamas to sign on to an agreement to end the war.
"I'm telling you it's actually hurting the cause they think they're furthering," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a news conference in Israel with Netanyahu earlier this month.
Trump returns to the United Nations
Trump is addressing the international body in person for the first time since 2019. The last United Nations speech of his first term came during the COVID pandemic, and Trump's speech was prerecorded for a mostly virtual audience.
Since returning to office, he has downgraded the status of the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and withdrawn support from several of its initiatives.
He has pulled the United States out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization over an alleged anti-American bias.
Trump says the U.N. has "tremendous potential" but it's not living up to it.
"There are great hopes for it, but it's not being well run," Trump said in February. "And they're not doing the job."
If he really wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving foreign wars, Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral and former official at U.S. European Command, said Trump cannot give critical or backwards-looking remarks when he appears before the U.N.
"This is not the place where you go scorched earth," Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. "That would not be helpful for him."
Contributing: Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump addresses UN General Assembly amid conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza
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