President Trump addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last Tuesday with a speech that delivered bold—and, for some, inconvenient—truths.
Aside from offering a clear rejection of globalism, President Trump took aim at the U.S.’s authoritarian enemies. He portrayed Russia in a negative light and launched pointed attacks at China. His speech also brought to mind lingering questions about the future of the UN and America’s role in it.
President Trump alluded to the dysfunctional nature of the Russian military and how it has been unable to accomplish its strategic objectives against a much smaller military.
Everyone thought Russia would win this war in three days, but it didn't work out that way. It was supposed to be just a quick little skirmish. It's not making Russia look good; it's making them look bad.
During his remarks about the war in Ukraine, he mentioned the substantial role that China—as well as India—has played in funding Russia’s aggression through its oil purchases.
China benefits from the war in Ukraine in multiple ways, from distracting the West to selling its military equipment to Russia.
President Trump highlighted the threat that biological weapons pose to international security and the need to address this concern—a clear shot at Beijing:
Just a few years ago, reckless experiments overseas gave us a devastating global pandemic, yet despite that worldwide catastrophe, many countries are continuing extremely risky research into bio-weapons and man-made pathogens. This is unbelievably dangerous. To prevent potential disasters, I'm announcing today that my administration will lead an international effort to enforce biological weapons convention, which is going to be meeting with the top leaders of the world by pioneering an AI verification system that everyone can trust.
He pointed out that the globalists’ climate policies have hit compliant countries’ economies the hardest over the decades while benefiting China—the world’s top polluter. China’s environmental impact ranges from air pollution to the dumping of waste into the world’s waters.
.@POTUS: "The primary effect of these brutal green energy policies has not been to help the Environment, but to redistribute manufacturing and industrial activity from developed countries that FOLLOW the insane rules... to polluting countries that BREAK the rules." pic.twitter.com/01qVzJYrwe
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 23, 2025
Even President Trump’s reference to uncontrolled migration at the southern border during the Biden years was a jab at China. Beijing weaponized migration into the U.S., with border crossings of Chinese nationals increasing 8,000 percent between 2021 and 2024. The vast majority of these Chinese nationals were military-age men.
But besides Trump’s condemnation of China and Russia, and the West’s failure to act, his speech served as a reminder of just how broken the UN is—an organization that creates more problems than it solves.
Who Really Needs the United Nations Anyway?
China and Russia serve as permanent members on the UN Security Council, each wielding veto power. They have succeeded in blocking sanctions, resolutions, and discussions of some of the most egregious human rights violations.
At the UNGA, China and Russia have been able to sway other countries. Over the last ten years, the UNGA has failed to pass resolutions condemning countries like China, Cuba, and Myanmar—and other actors like Hamas—while frequently targeting the U.S. and Israel, with Israel being the most vilified country in the entire organization.
China and Russia have both held seats on the UN Human Rights Council, a body that President Trump rightly withdrew the U.S. from due to its bias and failure to reform itself. China successfully co-opted the UN Human Rights Office to stop short of labeling its treatment of the Uyghurs a genocide in a 2022 report. At one point, Chinese representatives led as many as four out of the 15 UN specialized agencies.
China has long used UNESCO to rewrite history and to whitewash the Uyghur genocide, and co-opted the World Health Organization (WHO) to parrot Beijing’s propaganda regarding the origins of COVID-19. The U.S. was the top contributor to UNESCO and the WHO, but earlier this year, President Trump signed executive orders to withdraw the U.S. from these UN agencies.
Although the Trump administration has not expressed any intention to pull the U.S. out of the international body entirely, the administration appears to be determined to use funding as leverage to push for major reforms within the UN.
As the examples above show, the UN has been deeply penetrated and co-opted by the CCP and other authoritarian actors. Its agencies work to further the interests of America’s enemies, all while America foots the bill and hosts the organization on its soil. Clearly, the UN must be reformed.
But while reforms must be pursued and certain elements defunded, an uncertainty remains.
To what extent will Washington be able to force change at the UN? Countries have been discussing the need to reform the UN for decades, with nothing to show.
To reform the UN’s structure and procedures, amendments would have to be made to the UN Charter, impossible without broad consensus. America’s enemies, the globalists included, benefit from the status quo. Therefore, the feasibility of institutional reform is questionable.
We must continue working to defund the UN. The UN is already feeling the effects of the administration's funding cuts, and there is likely more to come. China, with its faltering economy, is defaulting on its UN payments, with a 10-month delay at the end of last year. Good—that means less reliable money for the UN.
At some point, though, tough questions must be asked about the UN’s overall relevance—or more accurately, its irrelevance; its diminishing credibility; its weaponization by enemies; the feasibility of meaningful reform; and America’s role within this organization. Perhaps then it will become clear that the UN, an inherently globalist and highly corrupt entity that gives authoritarian regimes an international platform, is broken beyond repair.
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