Addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 22, President Donald Trump accused the UN Human Rights Council of ignoring the persecution of Christians while criticizing U.S. immigration enforcement and restrictions on transgender procedures for minors.
“The craven hypocrites of the Human Rights Council have little to say about the persecution of Christians… or the crimes of the world’s most repressive regimes, yet they want America to open our borders to gangs and criminals from the world’s most dangerous places,” Trump said in his UN General Assembly address.
Departing from his prepared speech text, Trump added, “I mean, Christians are being persecuted all over the world. It’s not even believable — I never thought I’d say it, but it’s been happening for a long time.” On immigration, he said, “There is no human right to illegal immigration, but there is a right to remain a sovereign nation, and we want to remain a sovereign nation, and so should you.”
Trump has previously spoken out about the killing of Christians in Nigeria. On October 31, 2025, he wrote on Truth Social that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria” and announced that he was designating the country a Country of Particular Concern. The next day, he warned that the U.S. might intervene militarily and ordered the Pentagon to prepare for action. Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List recorded 3,490 Christians killed for their faith in Nigeria out of 4,849 worldwide, more than 70 percent of the total.
In November, the U.S. Mission to the UN held an event on the violence. On December 25, U.S. forces struck ISIS militants in coordination with Nigerian authorities. U.S. personnel subsequently provided intelligence assistance and training. In May, a joint operation killed senior ISIS leaders, including Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom U.S. Africa Command identified as the group’s director of global operations. In July, AFRICOM commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson said the U.S. had withdrawn most troops deployed for the operation but continued intelligence support at Nigeria’s request. A U.S. Air Force C-17 delivered military equipment to the Nigerian Air Force in Lagos and Kainji in September under a foreign military sales agreement.
Congress also pressed Nigeria to protect Christian communities. In February 2026, members of the House Appropriations and Foreign Affairs committees recommended a bilateral agreement and implementation of provisions withholding funds from Nigeria’s government until it acted to stop the violence. In July, the House passed a State Department spending bill with an amendment by Rep. Greg Steube that would withhold all U.S. economic and security assistance until the secretary of state certified that Nigeria had taken effective steps to prevent and respond to violence and hold perpetrators accountable. The bill still had to pass the Senate.
Trump has repeatedly pressed European leaders to tighten their borders, linking mass migration to crime, including sexual assault. Arriving in Scotland in July 2025, he told reporters, “This immigration is killing Europe.” At the UN General Assembly that September, he warned European leaders that their countries were “going to hell.” At the NATO summit in Ankara in July 2026, he warned about immigration and energy policy: “If they’re not careful with those two things, you’re not going to have a Europe anymore.”
Spain became a focus after more than 70,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into its North African enclave of Ceuta on July 30 and 31. Ceuta’s chief prosecutor, Silvia Rojas, reported 23 sexual assaults since the crossings, nine involving children. A 29-year-old resident told CNN en Español, “Many women don’t want to, and can’t, go out alone.”
The State Department blamed Spain’s government for “deliberate efforts to enable and facilitate mass illegal migration into Europe.” Trump called the scenes an “invasion” and told Fox News, “Remember that picture. That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in.”
Trump has criticized the UN Human Rights Council for allowing dictatorships to hold seats on the body. At the 2017 General Assembly, he called it “a massive source of embarrassment to the United Nations” that governments with egregious human rights records sat on the council. The following June, after then-Ambassador Nikki Haley’s attempt to reform it failed, the United States withdrew. A White House fact sheet named Venezuela, Cuba, Burundi, China, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as council members with records of continual human rights abuses. At the 2018 General Assembly, Trump called the council “a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends.” On February 4, 2025, he signed Executive Order 14199, directing the U.S. to stop participating in the council and withhold its share of council funding through the UN regular budget. An accompanying fact sheet said Iran, China, and Cuba used the council to shield themselves from scrutiny despite their human rights records.
In Tuesday’s speech, Trump described U.S. action against Venezuela, where U.S. forces arrested Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3. He cited an oil agreement signed in August with the government of interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, calling it “the largest oil deal in history.” Describing the Caracas operation, he said, “It was a war. To the victor belong the spoils.” He then warned, “The United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere — and if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States.”
Turning to Cuba, Trump said its communist government faced “the biggest pressure they’ve ever been under” and predicted it would fall. “Communism will never be coming to America, but freedom will be coming to Cuba,” he said. On Iran, with which the U.S. and Israel have been at war since February 28, he presented a choice between a deal that would allow the country to rebuild and destroying the Islamic Republic, according to ABC News. The Cuban delegation and most of Iran’s delegation walked out during his remarks.
Trump also targeted other international bodies in the speech. According to UN News, he called on nations to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, which he described as full of evil people. He also criticized UNESCO, saying that UNESCO’s promotion of mass migration is destroying the cultural heritage the agency was created to protect.
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