Trump brands climate change ‘greatest con job ever’ and carbon footprint a ‘hoax’ at UN | WATCH

United Nations, United States: US President Donald Trump called climate change the "greatest con job ever" and alleged that the concept of carbon footprints was "a hoax" as he addressed the UN General Assembly Tuesday.

"Climate change -- it's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion," he said. "(The) carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they're heading down a path of total destruction."

Trump also, however, was not audibly booed or otherwise shunned — despite spending large parts of his comments lecturing the global community on immigration policy, climate change response and other key issues.

Trump called immigration and policies confronting climate change a “double-tailed monster” that’s ruining Europe. His rhetoric was especially harsh on what he called “the unmitigated immigration disaster.”

Here’s what he said: “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail. I’m the president of the United States, but I worry about Europe. I love Europe, I love the people of Europe. And I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake.”

Then he directly addressed European leaders: “You’re doing it because you want to be nice. You want to be politically correct, and you’re destroying your heritage.”

Most of the U.S. allies in Europe are majority white, with recent immigration waves coming from nonwhites in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Trump urged European countries to abandon green energy initiatives, scoffing that, in decades past, some experts predicted that by the year 2000 “climate change will cause a global catastrophe.”

He said scientists predicted some nations might be “wiped off the map” by now, but insisted that’s “not happening.”

Actually, climate change has indeed triggered rising sea levels and intensifying storms that have caused small island nations to shrink. Such phenomenon has also cost enormous sums of money for disaster response, cleanup and rebuilding in the U.S. and around the world.

Nonetheless, Trump insisted it was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world in my opinion.”

He said “all of these predictions were wrong” and “made by stupid people,” adding, “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”

In his return to the UN General Assembly podium, Trump accused the UN of fostering an "assault" through migration on Western countries that he said were "going to hell."

"What is the purpose of the United Nations?" asked Trump.

"All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter," he said. "It's empty words, and empty words don't solve war"

Touting what he said were his efforts to end seven wars, Trump turned to two where his outreach has produced no results -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

He called recognition by a slate of Washington's allies of a Palestinian state a "reward" to armed group Hamas for "horrible atrocities" and urged the group to release hostages to reach peace.

The 79-year-old also added that he would meet with Brazil's president next week, even after fiercely criticizing Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the prosecution of his predecessor over a coup plot.

"I was walking in, and the leader of Brazil was walking out.... We actually agreed that we would meet next week," said Trump, who has imposed steep tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on officials in retaliation for the jailing of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.

(with inputs from AP & AFP)