He simultaneously praised his own record on these issues, touting reduced crossings at the southern border and a renewed focus on using "clean, beautiful coal."
"The immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of western Europe if something is not done immediately," he said.
Trump was the fourth speaker at the start of the U.N. General Assembly's general debate, which started Tuesday morning. Each speaker was allowed 15 minutes at the podium, but Trump spoke for just shy of an hour, also addressing biological and nuclear weapons, crime, drug and human trafficking, tariffs, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Trump said that though he loves Europe, it "is in serious trouble" due to undocumented migrants "pouring in." Describing Europe's immigration policies as a "failed experiment of open borders," Trump told those in attendance at the general debate, "your countries are going to hell."
He specifically called out London Mayor Sadiq Khan's views on immigration, calling him a "terrible mayor."
Trump took issue with migrants entering countries where the ways of life are different. For instance, he accused Muslim migrants of wanting "to go to Sharia law," the Islamic legal code.
"You are in a different country, you can't do that," Trump said.
Minutes after the conclusion of Trump's speech, Khan's office called the comments "appalling and bigoted." British Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Khan is not trying to install Sharia law in the country.
Though Trump said no migrants were now crossing the southern border illegally under his administration, border officials said more than 9,700 people were apprehended at the border in August, according to The New York Times. That is, however, a marked reduction in numbers compared to a year ago, when 107,000 were apprehended in August 2024 during the Biden administration.
Trump then turned to climate change and renewable energy, which he called the "green scam." He said European countries are losing money switching to renewable sources of energy to meet goals set by the Paris Agreement on climate change. Meanwhile, he said, other countries, such as China, are taking advantage by continuing to use cheaper fossil fuels.
Together, politics on immigration and renewable energy are "destroying a large part of the free world," Trump said.
Early on in his speech, Trump addressed one of the biggest developments taking place on the sidelines of the general debate -- the recognition of Palestine.
At an international peace summit hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron formally recognized Palestine. His announcement was joined by the countries of Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino, and Australia, Britain and Canada made their own declarations Sunday.
"The time has come for Israel to live in peace and security," Macron said, sharing his support for a two-state solution to the conflict. "The time has come to give justice to the Palestinian people and to recognize the state of Palestine."
Trump said recognizing Palestine "would be a reward" for Hamas, which still holds hostages from its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
"Release the hostages now," Trump said to applause.
Trump mocks UN on peace and migration in blistering return
United Nations, United States (AFP) Sept 23, 2025 -
US President Donald Trump relentlessly mocked the United Nations on Tuesday in his first address since his White House comeback, blasting it for failing to bring peace and claiming the world body encourages illegal migration.
In his return to the UN General Assembly podium, Trump accused the UN of fostering an "assault" through migration on Western countries that he said were "going to hell."
He likewise used the major forum to denounce efforts to reduce global warming, calling climate change concerns "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world."
"What is the purpose of the United Nations?" asked Trump.
"All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter," he said. "It's empty words, and empty words don't solve war"
The 79-year-old even complained about a broken escalator and teleprompter at the New York headquarters of the UN, which he has repeatedly targeted during both of his presidential terms.
"This is these are the two things I got from the United Nations, a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter," he said.
Touting what he said were his efforts to end seven wars, Trump turned to two where his outreach has produced no results -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.
He called recognition by a slate of Washington's allies of a Palestinian state a "reward" to armed group Hamas for "horrible atrocities" and urged the group to release hostages to reach peace.
Trump lashed out at European allies, as well as China and India, for failing to stop oil purchases from Russia, while remaining relatively restrained on Moscow even as he said Washington was ready to impose unspecified sanctions.
Some of his strongest language was reserved for migration as he lambasted the UN for "funding an assault" on Western nations.
"It's time to end the failed experiment of open borders," Trump said. "Your countries are going to hell," he said, also attacking London's Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital.
- 'Wreaking havoc' -
Trump's second term has opened with a blaze of nationalist policies curbing cooperation with the rest of the world.
He has moved to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization and the UN climate pact, severely curtailed US development assistance and wielded sanctions against foreign judges over rulings he sees as violating sovereignty.
Opening the annual summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that aid cuts led by the United States were "wreaking havoc" in the world.
"What kind of world will we choose? A world of raw power -- or a world of laws?" Guterres said.
On Ukraine, Trump will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky for the second time since he sat down in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 -- a summit that broke Moscow's isolation in the West but yielded no breakthrough on Ukraine.
Despite Trump's insistence that he can broker a quick end to the war, Russia has not only kept up its barrage of attacks on Ukraine in the past month but rattled nerves with drone or air incursions in NATO members Poland, Estonia and Romania.
Trump said last week that Putin had "really let me down."
One of Trump's few other one-on-one meetings will be with Argentina's right-wing President Javier Milei, an ideological ally to whose government the United States is considering offering an economic lifeline.
Ahead of his visit to the UN district, swarming with heavily armed police and agents and crisscrossed with barricades and road closures, the US Secret Service said they had disrupted a "telecommunications-related" plot.
The Secret Service said it a weaponized farm of more than 100,000 cellphone SIM cards that was capable of blocking communications around the UN, and that it "nation-state threat actors" were involved.
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