TRUMP LABELS CLIMATE CHANGE A 'CON'

President’s speech at the U.N. also accuses the world body of using ‘empty words.’

- By CATHERINE LUCEY, JOSH WINGROVE AND JENNIFER A. DLOUHY

CHIP SOMODEVILLA Getty Images "I'VE BEEN right about everything," President Trump told the U.N. assembly.

President Trump assailed the United Nations and other countries in a grievance-laden speech that accused the world body of offering nothing but “empty words,” labeled climate change a “con job” and warned that open borders risked destroying nations.

Setting aside calls for unity, Trump began his speech to the U.N. General Assembly by venting his frustration that the U.N. hadn’t done more to support his diplomatic efforts. He faulted the organization over an escalator that broke down just as First Lady Melania Trump stepped onto it, said his teleprompter had broken down and ruminated on a two-decade-old grudge over his rejected bid to renovate the U.N. headquarters.

“I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal,” Trump said Tuesday. “These are the two things I got from the United Nations — a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter, thank you very much.”

Americans accustomed to the U.S. president's discursive speeches would find much familiar in the address, which ran for nearly an hour. But foreign leaders not inured to Trump's attacks witnessed a combative leader who heaped himself with praise while repeatedly violating unwritten U.N. protocol of not criticizing other countries by name.