US President Donald Trump argued for lower levels of global migration and urged a turn away from climate change policies on Tuesday in a combative, wide-ranging speech to the UN General Assembly that levelled scathing criticism of world leaders.
The 56-minute speech was a rebuke to the world body and a return to form for Trump, who routinely bashed the UN during his first term as president. Leaders gave him polite applause when he exited the chamber.
He rejected moves by allies to endorse a Palestinian state amid Israel's latest Gaza offensive and urged European nations to adopt the same set of economic measures he is proposing against Russia to force an end to the war in Ukraine. Much of his speech was dominated by two of his biggest grievances: immigration and climate change.
The next day, Trump said the Secret Service was investigating what he described as “sabotage” at the UN, alleging that an escalator malfunction, a teleprompter failure and sound problems disrupted his appearance at the world body a day earlier.
"Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!" Trump wrote.
Calling the series of events “triple sabotage”, Trump said he had asked the UN to preserve security camera footage and demanded an investigation. He said the Secret Service was looking into the matter.
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