When Donald Trump Said the United Nations is "Just a Club for People to Have a Good Time"

Donald Trump questioned the United Nation's potential in a tweet from back in 2016. Although the former president admitted that the UN has a certain power, in the same post, he criticized it as a "club to get together." Trump's remark came after the International Organization voted to condemn the longstanding Middle-Eastern conflict and he consequently critiqued it on the social media platform. 

On X, formerly Twitter, the Republican front-runner wrote on December 27, 2016, "The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!" The now-77-year-old previously warned on December 24, 2017, once he takes over the Oval Office, "things will be different after Jan 20th," as per Daily Mail. 

The Obama administration decided to abstain from its power to exercise its veto and conclude the years of clash. Apparently, Trump told The Associated Press he wanted to be "very neutral" on the Middle-Eastern issues. However, his speech seemed to be inclined to one side as the campaign progressed which further raised questions about his "neutral" approach. 

But Nikki Haley, who previously served as the U.N. Ambassador under the Trump administration before running for the elections in 2024, said that people should expect tough talk and defended, "I personally think he [Donald Trump] slaps the right people, he hugs the right people, and he comes out with [the] U.S. being very strong, in the end."

The 2024 presidential hopeful has been vocal about his criticism of the UN despite the organization's large-scale humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts. Meanwhile, developing nations often accused the United Nations of being overly influenced by wealthy countries, the Western democracies labeled it as inefficient and frivolous. 

After Trump took the Oval Office, he gave his first-ever speech before the UN where he was expected to pitch his "America First" foreign policy vision. He addressed many topics, including open threats to "destroy" North Korea, boasting about the United States' "strength" and "patience," and calling out the United Nations for their role, per The Guardian. 

He said, "The US has great strength and patience," but added, "If it is forced to defend ourselves or our allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." Meanwhile, he also addressed the role of the United Nations amid all this saying the US is "ready, willing and able" to take military action and called out, "That is what the United Nations is for. Let's see how they do." 

Trump's UN debut was met with criticism from some leaders who denounced his speech as hateful and ignorant. For instance, Iran's foreign minister condemned, "Trump's ignorant hate speech belongs in medieval times [and not the UN]." Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who sat crossing her arms throughout the speech, told BBC, "It was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience."