WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hit out at “globalist institutions” and criticize the recognition of a Palestinian state by Western allies in a speech to the United Nations, the White House said Monday.
Trump is set to deliver the first speech of his second term to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, as the annual diplomatic gathering is dominated by Israel’s war in Gaza.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” in his address.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” she added.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the UN and other multilateral institutions as part of his “America First” policy, and either cut funding for or withdrawn from a number of UN bodies.
Trump will meanwhile hold a “multilateral meeting” with the leaders of key Muslim countries at the UN assembly, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Leavitt told a briefing.
The move comes after several Western governments recognized a Palestinian state, angering Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will speak at the UN on Friday, has vowed to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank after the recognitions.
Trump himself opposed the moves by Britain, Canada and Australia to recognize the state of Palestine, which France is due to follow on Monday.
“The president has been very clear he disagrees with this decision,” Leavitt said, noting that he had publicly done so with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a UK state visit last week.
“Frankly, he believes it’s a reward to Hamas. So he believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies, and I think you’ll hear him talk about that tomorrow” at the UN, she added.
Trump will also meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN gathering, Leavitt said, as Kyiv seeks Western-backed security guarantees to prop up an elusive ceasefire with Russia.
In addition, the US president will meet Argentinian counterpart and key ally Javier Milei, a day after the US Treasury said it was mulling an economic lifeline for Argentina as it battles to calm jittery markets.