President Donald Trump told European leaders their countries were “going to hell” in a combative address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, coupling a sweeping denunciation of Europe’s migration and climate agendas with threats of tougher economic measures against Russia and a demand that U.S. allies follow his lead. “I’m really good at this stuff,” he said from the rostrum. “Your countries are going to hell.” He framed recent U.S. border crackdowns as a model for other nations and cast European policies on asylum and green energy as existential mistakes.
Turning repeatedly to immigration, Trump accused European governments of “destroying your heritage” and urged them to abandon what he called a failed experiment with open borders. “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now,” he said, adding moments later: “Your countries are going to hell.” He asserted that lenient migration rules had put European societies in “serious trouble,” telling leaders they should emulate the United States’ tougher enforcement.
Trump paired the warning with an extended attack on global climate policy, calling climate change “the greatest con job ever” and deriding renewable energy initiatives as a “green scam.” “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” he said, arguing that European electricity costs were punishing households and industry. He also claimed “the carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions.” The remarks drew a muted reaction in the hall but immediate rebukes from scientists and officials outside the chamber, where scheduled climate events carried on across Midtown.
In one of several broadsides aimed directly at the United Kingdom, Trump alleged that London under Mayor Sadiq Khan “now [wants] to go to sharia law,” a claim denounced as false by critics in Britain within hours. “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law,” he said. In London, Labour MPs publicly pressed the government to protest the rhetoric; Khan’s spokesperson said the mayor would not dignify “appalling and bigoted comments” but noted that London remains safer than major U.S. cities and continues to attract U.S. residents.