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'President with a brain': JD Vance hails Donald Trump's UNGA speech sans teleprompter
Trump slammed the UN for not offering any help in ‘peacekeeping efforts’ and said the two things he got from the body were a bad escalator and teleprompter.
US Vice President JD Vance hailed President Donald Trump's "clear and reasonable address" at the United Nations General Assembly despite the non-functioning teleprompter.
During his speech, Trump slammed the UN's escalator and teleprompter. He said that even after all his peacekeeping efforts, he did not receive any help from the UN.
He said that the "two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.” Track UNGA 2025 live updates
Minutes into his speech, Trump said he didn't mind making the address without a teleprompter, as it was not working. "I can only say that whoever is operating this teleprompter is in big trouble," he added, drawing laughter from the gathering of leaders and representatives at the UNGA.
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In a post on X, Vance wrote, "All kidding aside did everyone notice how despite the lack of a teleprompter, he delivered a clear, reasonable address on US foreign policy? It's nice to have a president with a brain!"
Trump alleged that the UN ignores his peace-prompting efforts. He listed his measures to ease conflicts in several countries and said, "It's too bad I had to do those things instead of the United Nations doing them."
"Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help," he added.
In front of top UN officials, Trump went on to lambast the international body and said it is filled with "empty words". the US President said that despite having massive potential, the UN is not living up to the measure.
“I’ve always said the UN has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” Trump said.
He further said, "“For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter. It’s empty words and empty words don’t solve war.”
Following his speech at the UNGA, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social handle and said he believed that his address was "very well received".
"It focused very much on energy and migration/immigration. I have been talking about this for a long period of time and this Forum, was the absolute best from the standpoint of making these two important statements. I hope everybody gets to watch it! The teleprompter was broken and the escalator came to a sudden hault as we were ridding up to the podium, but both of those events probably made the speech more interesting than it would have been otherwise. It is always an honor to speak at the United Nations, even if, their equipment is somewhat faulty. Make America Great Again!" Trump posted.
