Fact check: Trump’s false claims to the United Nations

President Donald Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday contained several false claims, despite his adherence to a prepared text. Here is a fact check of some of his assertions. Trump, echoing a well-known falsehood, claimed to have "settled eight wars" during his presidency. However, this exaggeration is inaccurate.

His list includes two situations that were never actual wars during his tenure. The conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia was a diplomatic dispute involving an Ethiopian dam project, not a war. The supposed dispute between Serbia and Kosovo was also not a war. Furthermore, the war in Gaza continues to this day, even after a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, and Israel has continued to launch attacks within the enclave.

In his speech, Trump also made several inaccuracies regarding global warming. First, the terms "global warming" and "climate change" are often used interchangeably, though they refer to different things. Climate scientists use both terms, with "global warming" typically referring to the long-term trend of increasing global temperatures, and "climate change" encompassing the broader range of effects resulting from that temperature increase.

NASA, operated under the Trump administration, provides a clear explanation of the difference between the two terms on its website. For instance, a 2023 report from the UN's climate change panel, titled "Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report," highlights that human activities, primarily through greenhouse gas emissions, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperatures rising by 1.1°C above the 1850-1900 average between 2011 and 2020.

Second, Trump did not acknowledge that the world's temperatures have continued to rise since his presidency began. According to the UN's World Meteorological Organization, the past 11 years have been the 11 warmest on record, with 2023, 2024, and 2025 being the three warmest years on record. NASA also confirms these findings. Third, the notion that "nobody" has died due to the impacts of a warming world is contradicted by expert opinions.

Although pinpointing an exact death toll is challenging, some estimates suggest that between 2030 and 2050, climate change could cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths annually, primarily from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress. The World Health Organization warns that this trend is likely to continue. Lastly, while there may have been isolated instances of individuals expressing dire predictions about the consequences of global warming, no expert report actually stated that "we'll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming."

A widely discussed 2018 report from climate scientists did warn that significant action was needed within the next 12 years to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; scientists emphasized that exceeding this threshold could lead to more severe and deadly consequences. However, the report never claimed that everyone would die within a decade. Instead, it emphasized the urgent need for action to mitigate the future impacts of climate change.