United Nations Headquarters
New York, New York
10:38 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Madam President, Mr.
Secretary-General, world leaders, ambassadors, and distinguished
delegates:
One year ago, I stood before you
for the first time in this grand hall. I addressed the threats facing
our world, and I presented a vision to achieve a brighter future for
all of humanity.
Today, I stand before the United
Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we’ve made.
In less than two years, my
administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in
the history of our country.
America’s — so true. (Laughter.) Didn’t expect that reaction, but
that’s okay. (Laughter and applause.)
America’s economy is booming
like never before. Since my election, we’ve added $10 trillion in
wealth. The stock market is at an all-time high in history, and jobless
claims are at a 50-year low. African American, Hispanic American, and
Asian American unemployment have all achieved their lowest levels ever
recorded. We’ve added more than 4 million new jobs, including half a
million manufacturing jobs.
We have passed the biggest tax
cuts and reforms in American history. We’ve started the construction of
a major border wall, and we have greatly strengthened border security.
We have secured record funding
for our military — $700 billion this year, and $716 billion next year.
Our military will soon be more powerful than it has ever been before.
In other words, the United
States is stronger, safer, and a richer country than it was when I
assumed office less than two years ago.
We are standing up for America and for the American people. And we are
also standing up for the world.
This is great news for our
citizens and for peace-loving people everywhere. We believe that when
nations respect the rights of their neighbors, and defend the interests
of their people, they can better work together to secure the blessings
of safety, prosperity, and peace.
Each of us here today is the
emissary of a distinct culture, a rich history, and a people bound
together by ties of memory, tradition, and the values that make our
homelands like nowhere else on Earth.
That is why America will always
choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control,
and domination.1
I honor the right of every
nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs, and traditions.
The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship.2
We only ask that you honor our
sovereignty in return.
From Warsaw to Brussels, to
Tokyo to Singapore, it has been my highest honor to represent the
United States abroad. I have forged close relationships and friendships
and strong partnerships with the leaders of many nations in this room,
and our approach has already yielded incredible change.
With support from many countries
here today, we have engaged with North Korea to replace the specter of
conflict with a bold and new push for peace.
In June, I traveled to Singapore to meet face to face with North
Korea’s leader, Chairman Kim Jong Un.
We had highly productive
conversations and meetings, and we agreed that it was in both
countries’ interest to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula. Since that meeting, we have already seen a number of
encouraging measures that few could have imagined only a short time ago.
The missiles and rockets are no
longer flying in every direction. Nuclear testing has stopped. Some
military facilities are already being dismantled. Our hostages have
been released. And as promised, the remains of our fallen heroes are
being returned home to lay at rest in American soil.
I would like to thank Chairman
Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work
remains to be done. The sanctions will stay in place until
denuclearization occurs.
I also want to thank the many
member states who helped us reach this moment — a moment that is
actually far greater than people would understand; far greater — but
for also their support and the critical support that we will all need
going forward.
A special thanks to President
Moon of South Korea, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, and President Xi of
China.
In the Middle East, our new
approach is also yielding great strides and very historic change.
Following my trip to Saudi
Arabia last year, the Gulf countries opened a new center to target
terrorist financing. They are enforcing new sanctions, working with us
to identify and track terrorist networks, and taking more
responsibility for fighting terrorism and extremism in their own region.3
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar
have pledged billions of dollars to aid the people of Syria and Yemen.
And they are pursuing multiple avenues to ending Yemen’s horrible,
horrific civil war.
Ultimately, it is up to the
nations of the region to decide what kind of future they want for
themselves and their children.
For that reason, the United
States is working with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan, and Egypt
to establish a regional strategic alliance so that Middle Eastern
nations can advance prosperity, stability, and security across their
home region.
Thanks to the United States military and our partnership with many of
your nations, I am pleased to report that the bloodthirsty killers
known as ISIS have been driven out from the territory they once held in
Iraq and Syria. We will continue to work with friends and allies to
deny radical Islamic terrorists any funding, territory or support, or
any means of infiltrating our borders.4
The ongoing tragedy in Syria is
heartbreaking. Our shared goals must be the de-escalation of military
conflict, along with a political solution that honors the will of the
Syrian people. In this vein, we urge the United Nations-led peace
process be reinvigorated. But, rest assured, the United States will
respond if chemical weapons are deployed by the Assad regime.5
I commend the people of Jordan
and other neighboring countries for hosting refugees from this very
brutal civil war.
As we see in Jordan, the most
compassionate policy is to place refugees as close to their homes as
possible to ease their eventual return to be part of the rebuilding
process. This approach also stretches finite resources to help far more
people, increasing the impact of every dollar spent.
Every solution to the
humanitarian crisis in Syria must also include a strategy to address
the brutal regime that has fueled and financed it: the corrupt
dictatorship in Iran.
Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death,
and destruction. They do not respect their neighbors or borders, or the
sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran’s leaders plunder the
nation’s resources to enrich themselves and to spread mayhem across the
Middle East and far beyond.
The Iranian people are rightly
outraged that their leaders have embezzled billions of dollars from
Iran’s treasury, seized valuable portions of the economy, and looted
the people’s religious endowments, all to line their own pockets and
send their proxies to wage war. Not good.6
Iran’s neighbors have paid a
heavy toll for the region’s [regime’s] agenda of aggression and
expansion. That is why so many countries in the Middle East strongly
supported my decision to withdraw the United States from the horrible
2015 Iran Nuclear Deal and re-impose nuclear sanctions.
The Iran deal was a windfall for
Iran’s leaders. In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s
military budget grew nearly 40 percent. The dictatorship used the funds
to build nuclear-capable missiles, increase internal repression,
finance terrorism, and fund havoc and slaughter in Syria and Yemen.
The United States has launched a
campaign of economic pressure to deny the regime the funds it needs to
advance its bloody agenda. Last month, we began re-imposing
hard-hitting nuclear sanctions that had been lifted under the Iran
deal. Additional sanctions will resume November 5th, and more will
follow. And we’re working with countries that import Iranian crude oil
to cut their purchases substantially.
We cannot allow the world’s
leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous
weapons. We cannot allow a regime that chants “Death to America,” and
that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to
deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth. Just can’t do it.
We ask all nations to isolate
Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues. And we ask all
nations to support Iran’s people as they struggle to reclaim their
religious and righteous destiny.7
This year, we also took another
significant step forward in the Middle East. In recognition of every
sovereign state to determine its own capital, I moved the U.S. Embassy
in Israel to Jerusalem.
The United States is committed
to a future of peace and stability in the region, including peace
between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That aim is advanced, not
harmed, by acknowledging the obvious facts.8
America’s policy of principled
realism means we will not be held hostage to old dogmas, discredited
ideologies, and so-called experts who have been proven wrong over the
years, time and time again. This is true not only in matters of peace,
but in matters of prosperity.
We believe that trade must be
fair and reciprocal. The United States will not be taken advantage of
any longer.
For decades, the United States
opened its economy — the largest, by far, on Earth — with few
conditions. We allowed foreign goods from all over the world to flow
freely across our borders.
Yet, other countries did not
grant us fair and reciprocal access to their markets in return. Even
worse, some countries abused their openness to dump their products,
subsidize their goods, target our industries, and manipulate their
currencies to gain unfair advantage over our country. As a result, our
trade deficit ballooned to nearly $800 billion a year.
For this reason, we are
systematically renegotiating broken and bad trade deals.
Last month, we announced a groundbreaking U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
And just yesterday, I stood with President Moon to announce the
successful completion of the brand new U.S.-Korea trade deal. And this
is just the beginning.
Many nations in this hall will
agree that the world trading system is in dire need of change. For
example, countries were admitted to the World Trade Organization that
violate every single principle on which the organization is based.
While the United States and many other nations play by the rules, these
countries use government-run industrial planning and state-owned
enterprises to rig the system in their favor. They engage in relentless
product dumping, forced technology transfer, and the theft of
intellectual property.
The United States lost over 3
million manufacturing jobs, nearly a quarter of all steel jobs, and
60,000 factories after China joined the WTO. And we have racked up $13
trillion in trade deficits over the last two decades.
But those days are over. We will
no longer tolerate such abuse. We will not allow our workers to be
victimized, our companies to be cheated, and our wealth to be plundered
and transferred. America will never apologize for protecting its
citizens.
The United States has just
announced tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese-made goods for a
total, so far, of $250 billion. I have great respect and affection for
my friend, President Xi, but I have made clear our trade imbalance is
just not acceptable. China’s market distortions and the way they deal
cannot be tolerated.
As my administration has
demonstrated, America will always act in our national interest.
I spoke before this body last
year and warned that the U.N. Human Rights Council had become a grave
embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights
abusers while bashing America and its many friends.
Our Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, laid out a clear
agenda for reform, but despite reported and repeated warnings, no
action at all was taken.
So the United States took the
only responsible course: We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and
we will not return until real reform is enacted.
For similar reasons, the United States will provide no support in
recognition to the International Criminal Court. As far as America is
concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no
authority. The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens
of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and
due process. We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an
unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy.
America is governed by
Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the
doctrine of patriotism.
Around the world, responsible
nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global
governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination.
In America, we believe strongly
in energy security for ourselves and for our allies. We have become the
largest energy producer anywhere on the face of the Earth.
The United States stands ready
to export our abundant, affordable supply of oil, clean coal, and
natural gas.
OPEC and OPEC nations, are, as
usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I don’t like it. Nobody
should like it. We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then
they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good.
We want them to stop raising
prices, we want them to start lowering prices, and they must contribute
substantially to military protection from now on. We are not going to
put up with it — these horrible prices — much longer.
Reliance on a single foreign
supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation.
That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for
leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not
dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become
totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change
course.
Here in the Western Hemisphere,
we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment
of expansionist foreign powers.
It has been the formal policy of
our country since President Monroe that we reject the interference of
foreign nations in this hemisphere and in our own affairs. The United
States has recently strengthened our laws to better screen foreign
investments in our country for national security threats, and we
welcome cooperation with countries in this region and around the world
that wish to do the same. You need to do it for your own protection.
The United States is also
working with partners in Latin America to confront threats to
sovereignty from uncontrolled migration. Tolerance for human struggling
and human smuggling and trafficking is not humane. It’s a horrible
thing that’s going on, at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It’s
very, very cruel.
Illegal immigration funds
criminal networks, ruthless gangs, and the flow of deadly drugs.
Illegal immigration exploits vulnerable populations, hurts hardworking
citizens, and has produced a vicious cycle of crime, violence, and
poverty. Only by upholding national borders, destroying criminal gangs,
can we break this cycle and establish a real foundation for prosperity.
We recognize the right of every
nation in this room to set its own immigration policy in accordance
with its national interests, just as we ask other countries to respect
our own right to do the same — which we are doing. That is one reason
the United States will not participate in the new Global Compact on
Migration. Migration should not be governed by an international body
unaccountable to our own citizens.
Ultimately, the only long-term
solution to the migration crisis is to help people build more hopeful
futures in their home countries. Make their countries great again.
Currently, we are witnessing a
human tragedy, as an example, in Venezuela. More than 2 million people
have fled the anguish inflicted by the socialist Maduro regime and its
Cuban sponsors.
Not long ago, Venezuela was one
of the richest countries on Earth. Today, socialism has bankrupted the
oil-rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty.
Virtually everywhere socialism
or communism has been tried, it has produced suffering, corruption, and
decay. Socialism’s thirst for power leads to expansion, incursion, and
oppression. All nations of the world should resist socialism and the
misery that it brings to everyone.
In that spirit, we ask the
nations gathered here to join us in calling for the restoration of
democracy in Venezuela. Today, we are announcing additional sanctions
against the repressive regime, targeting Maduro’s inner circle and
close advisors.
We are grateful for all the work
the United Nations does around the world to help people build better
lives for themselves and their families.
The United States is the world’s
largest giver in the world, by far, of foreign aid. But few give
anything to us. That is why we are taking a hard look at U.S. foreign
assistance. That will be headed up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
We will examine what is working, what is not working, and whether the
countries who receive our dollars and our protection also have our
interests at heart.
Moving forward, we are only
going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our
friends. And we expect other countries to pay their fair share for the
cost of their defense.
The United States is committed
to making the United Nations more effective and accountable. I have
said many times that the United Nations has unlimited potential. As
part of our reform effort, I have told our negotiators that the United
States will not pay more than 25 percent of the U.N. peacekeeping
budget. This will encourage other countries to step up, get involved,
and also share in this very large burden.
And we are working to shift more
of our funding from assessed contributions to voluntary so that we can
target American resources to the programs with the best record of
success.
Only when each of us does our
part and contributes our share can we realize the U.N.’s highest
aspirations. We must pursue peace without fear, hope without despair,
and security without apology.
Looking around this hall where
so much history has transpired, we think of the many before us who have
come here to address the challenges of their nations and of their
times. And our thoughts turn to the same question that ran through all
their speeches and resolutions, through every word and every hope. It
is the question of what kind of world will we leave for our children
and what kind of nations they will inherit.
The dreams that fill this hall
today are as diverse as the people who have stood at this podium, and
as varied as the countries represented right here in this body are. It
really is something. It really is great, great history.
There is India, a free society
over a billion people, successfully lifting countless millions out of
poverty and into the middle class.
There is Saudi Arabia, where
King Salman and the Crown Prince are pursuing bold new reforms.
There is Israel, proudly
celebrating its 70th anniversary as a thriving democracy in the Holy
Land.
In Poland, a great people are
standing up for their independence, their security, and their
sovereignty.
Many countries are pursuing
their own unique visions, building their own hopeful futures, and
chasing their own wonderful dreams of destiny, of legacy, and of a home.
The whole world is richer,
humanity is better, because of this beautiful constellation of nations,
each very special, each very unique, and each shining brightly in its
part of the world.
In each one, we see awesome
promise of a people bound together by a shared past and working toward
a common future.
As for Americans, we know what
kind of future we want for ourselves. We know what kind of a nation
America must always be.
In America, we believe in the
majesty of freedom and the dignity of the individual. We believe in
self-government and the rule of law. And we prize the culture that
sustains our liberty -– a culture built on strong families, deep faith,
and fierce independence. We celebrate our heroes, we treasure our
traditions, and above all, we love our country.
Inside everyone in this great
chamber today, and everyone listening all around the globe, there is
the heart of a patriot that feels the same powerful love for your
nation, the same intense loyalty to your homeland.
The passion that burns in the
hearts of patriots and the souls of nations has inspired reform and
revolution, sacrifice and selflessness, scientific breakthroughs, and
magnificent works of art.
Our task is not to erase it, but
to embrace it. To build with it. To draw on its ancient wisdom. And to
find within it the will to make our nations greater, our regions safer,
and the world better.
To unleash this incredible
potential in our people, we must defend the foundations that make it
all possible. Sovereign and independent nations are the only vehicle
where freedom has ever survived, democracy has ever endured, or peace
has ever prospered. And so we must protect our sovereignty and our
cherished independence above all.
When we do, we will find new
avenues for cooperation unfolding before us. We will find new passion
for peacemaking rising within us. We will find new purpose, new
resolve, and new spirit flourishing all around us, and making this a
more beautiful world in which to live.
So together, let us choose a
future of patriotism, prosperity, and pride. Let us choose peace and
freedom over domination and defeat. And let us come here to this place
to stand for our people and their nations, forever strong, forever
sovereign, forever just, and forever thankful for the grace and the
goodness and the glory of God.
Thank you. God bless you. And
God bless the nations of the world.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
(Applause.)
END
11:13 A.M. EDT
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