The Latest: Trump says he now believes Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader’s call on Kyiv to make concessions.

Trump offered his position in a social media posting soon after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump in part wrote, “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.”

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader’s call on Kyiv to make concessions.

Trump offered his position in a social media posting soon after meeting with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Trump in part wrote, “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.”

A jury of five men and seven women found Ryan Routh guilty on all counts that he was facing after 2 hours of deliberation.

Routh had been charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and defended himself in court.

Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

Routh told jurors in his closing argument that he didn’t intend to kill anyone that day.

The first lady said she’s establishing the initiative to “ensure that every child can flourish in the digital era.”

She announced the initiative in New York on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session. Queen Rania of Jordan and Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukraine’s president, were among those attending.

The coalition will be made up of spouses or representatives of leaders at UNGA.

Melania Trump said that, because “technology is evolving at a pace that exceeds lawmaking,” nations must identify “simple solutions” to create healthy environments for children and protect their personal freedom, confidence and motivation.

“Safety multiplies innovation,” she said.

Several legal groups have filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Trump administration over the denial of bond hearings for those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Boston, alleges that U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department have “abruptly and unlawfully reversed decades of settled immigration practice” by misclassifying people arrested by ICE so they can avoid holding bond hearings.

“All people in the United States are entitled to due process — without exception,” said Daniel McFadden, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “When the government arrests any person inside the United States, it must be required to prove to a judge that there is an actual reason for the person’s detention. Our client and others like him have a constitutional and statutory right to receive a bond hearing for exactly that purpose.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana and what the ACLU described as “thousands of other detainees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire” who may not get bond hearings.

“Yes, I do,” Trump said when asked about Russia breaching the airspace of NATO allies.

Asked if the U.S. would provide military backup, Trump said it “depends on the circumstance” as he prepared to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

NATO warned Russia on Tuesday that it would use all means to defend against any further breaches of its airspace after the downing earlier this month of Russian drones over Poland and Estonia’s report of an intrusion by Russian fighter jets last week.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says in a letter to colleagues that Democratic members will meet in Washington on Monday even though the House is not expected to be in session that day or the following one.

The letter is an example of how leadership in both parties has sought to win the messaging war on the issue of government funding, which lapses after September 30, the final day of the current budget year.

“Democrats will be in town and prepared to get the job done,” Jeffries said in the letter.

The letter to fellow Democrats comes after President Donald Trump cancelled a meeting scheduled for this week with Democratic leaders on the issue of government funding. Jeffries said the president “chickened out and cancelled the meeting.”

He said Democrats will also convene virtually on Friday afternoon to discuss a path forward.

Trump, who complained about the U.N. in his speech, was asked about changes he’d like to see. He said the global institution could do more to keep the peace.

“I mean, we shouldn’t have any wars if the U.N. is really doing its job,” Trump said alongside Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

“I know they were involved originally with Russia, Ukraine, and that didn’t get done because that was the time to stop it,” he said.

Trump also complimented von der Leyen as a “very powerful, very smart woman and a friend of mine.” He added, “She does a fantastic job running lots of different nations.”

President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave libertarian Argentinian President Javier Milei their “full backing and endorsement” Tuesday, and discussed how to bolster Argentina’s economy in the midst of severe volatility in the country’s financial markets.

Argentina heads into crucial congressional midterms at the end of October.

“We’re going to help them, I don’t think they need a bailout,” Trump told reporters, adding that “Scott is working with their country so that they can get good debt and all of the things that you need to make Argentina great again.”

Bessent on Monday said on the social media site X that “all options for stabilization are on the table” for the U.S.’ support for Argentina. Options being contemplated include purchasing Argentina’s currency or sovereign debt by a fund controlled by the US Treasury, called Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, Bessent said.

The meeting between the U.S. and Argentinian leaders came after Trump’s nearly hour-long speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Staff and visitors to United Nations institutions know the issue: In recent months, U.N. offices in New York and Geneva have intermittently turned off elevators and escalators as part of steps to save money because of a “liquidity crisis” at the world body.

That’s due in part to delays in funding from the United States, which is the top donor of the world body.

In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump broke from his prepared remarks to bemoan the inoperable escalator and a defective teleprompter and say he’s never gotten much from the United Nations, despite its potential.

“All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up stopped right in the middle,” he mused, chopping the air with his hand.

A U.N. official said the United Nations understands that someone from the president’s party who ran ahead of him inadvertently triggered the stop mechanism on the escalator. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the White House was operating the teleprompter for the president.

-Jamey Keaten and Edith Lederer

Trump described having a pleasant exchange with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in his speech at the U.N., amid strained relations between the two countries.

Trump was about to take the floor at the United Nations General Assembly when he bumped into Lula who had finished his speech and was walking off.

“We had a good talk, and we agreed to meet next week,” Trump said.

“He seemed like a very nice man, actually. He liked me. I liked him,” he said, before adding: “at least for about 39 seconds we had excellent chemistry, it’s a good sign.”

A Brazilian official told The Associated Press that the presidents greeted each other warmly. Trump said they needed to talk, and offered to do it next week. Lula replied he was open to it, though he is expected to return to Brazil on Wednesday. The official spoke under condition of anonymity for they did not have authorization to discuss the matter with journalists.

Relations between Brazil and US have been strained since Trump ordered the 50% tariff on Brazil in July. He cited among other reasons the trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro which he called a “witch hunt.” On Sept. 11, a panel of Supreme Court justices sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup. On Monday the U.S. retaliated by imposing additional sanctions.

-By Eleonore Hughes

In a bilateral meeting Tuesday with the top U.N. official, Trump’s tone toward the United Nations shifted after his speech earlier in the day blasted the world body for issuing “empty words."

The Republican president met with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres after his speech before the General Assembly.

“Our country is behind the United Nations 100%,” Trump told Guterres. “I may disagree with it sometimes but I am so behind it because the potential for peace at this institution is great.”

Chad Mizelle is planning to leave the Justice Department after serving nine months as the top adviser for Attorney General Pam Bondi. The department hasn’t said who’ll replace Mizelle, who served as general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under the first Trump administration.

Bondi in a statement said Mizelle “served this Department with professionalism, sound judgement and dedication.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Mizelle “played a key role in advancing the President’s America First agenda here at the Department, and his efforts strengthened our mission to protect the American people.”

Democratic secretaries of state for Michigan and Nevada said in a Tuesday news conference that they and other secretaries will coordinate to oppose a wide-ranging federal request for voter data.

The Justice Department earlier this month announced it has sued Oregon and Maine for failing to turn over their voter registration lists. That was the first time it brought lawsuits against states in its effort to get detailed voter data.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar made their comments at a news conference organized by the group States United. They said it’s unclear why the federal government wants the data because it hasn’t provided justification for it.

“There’s nothing there for them to find, but there’s plenty they can do badly with the information, with citizens’ private information,” Benson said, adding the government could “potentially use it to hurt our democracy and election systems.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is keeping the door open to talks with President Trump after Trump canceled a meeting with Democratic leaders that was scheduled for later in the week.

In a long post on his social media site Tuesday, Trump said the Democrats’ demands on health care in exchange for their votes to keep the government open next week were “unserious” and “ridiculous.” Trump said “no meeting could possibly be productive.”

In a post on X directed to Trump, Schumer said Democrats will sit down and discuss health care “when you’re finished ranting.”

In a separate statement, Schumer said Trump “is running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there” and that he would “rather throw a tantrum than do his job.“

The president concluded in just under an hour, trying to end on an optimistic note after an address that was mostly negative and confrontational.

“Let us all work together to build a bright, beautiful planet,” Trump said.

He added: “We’re gonna take care of our people. Thank you very much. It’s been an honor. God bless the nations of the world.”

The reaction from delegates was muted applause that was more polite than rousing.

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 says he and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have agreed to meet next week as tensions between their countries have spiked in recent months under heavy Trump administration criticism.

Speaking to world leaders a the U.N. General Assembly, Trump said he and Lula spoke briefly as they passed each other walking to and from the speaker’s podium.

“I saw him, he saw me and we embraced,” Trump said after criticizing Brazil for its tariffs on U.S. goods and its prosecution of Trump friend, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. “We actually agreed that we would meet next week.”

There were no immediate details of the date or venue for the meeting.

Trump has imposed major tariffs on Brazil and has also hit some Brazilian officials with sanctions.

The U.S. president said his administration is using import taxes as “a defense mechanism,” saying tariffs will ensure that other nations follow global rules on trade.

Trump declared an emergency under a 1977 law to impose sweeping tariffs on most of the countries on the planet. His argument was that the import taxes were needed because of a persistent trade imbalance, even though the tariffs also applied to nations with which America has run a surplus.

But the president also stressed in his speech that he wants the revenues generated by tariffs, even though a large portion of that cost is covered by American businesses and consumers who face higher prices. Trump said inflation in the U.S. is low, even though several measures are running above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The consumer price index increased in August at 2.9% over the past year, up from 2.3% in April when Trump began to impose the broad tariffs.

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.”

Trump shifted to talking about crime overall and specifically his crackdown in the U.S. capital, asserting that the city is “a totally safe city” after he flooded the streets with National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers.

“I welcome you to come,” Trump said. “In fact, we’ll have dinner together at a local restaurant and we’ll be able to walk. We don’t have to go by an armored plated vehicle.”

Trump went to dinner earlier this month at a seafood restaurant a few blocks from the White House to show it was safe even for him to venture out.

He rode over in his armored limousine.

Trump is unapologetic about authorizing the bombing of two boats U.S. officials said were carrying drugs, despite bipartisan criticism that the U.S. military actions violated the law.

“Let’s put it this way: People don’t like to take big loads of drugs in boats anymore,” he said, promising more attacks if he deems it necessary.

“Please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said after the two attacks that U.S. officials said killed 14 people.

Many Democrats and some Republicans have questioned Trump’s policy as a potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.

“It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now. I can tell you, I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” Trump proclaimed.

It was a lot of bravado on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly — even for a leader who’s built his political career on public boasts.

Trump has launched a crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border and pushed hardline domestic immigration policies.

“Once we started detaining and deporting everyone who crossed the border — and removing illegal aliens from the United States — they simply stopped coming,” he said.

The president called his efforts a “humanitarian act,” arguing that it saved people who might have otherwise died trying to cross the U.S. border illegally.

Trump said the best example is “the number one political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration.”

He said the U.N. last year budgeted several hundred million dollars to support more than half a million migrants entering the U.S.

“Think of that,” Trump said. “The U.N. is supporting people that are illegally coming into the United States, and we have to get them out.”

The president, who’s enforcing an immigration crackdown in the U.S., said what the U.N. is doing is “totally unacceptable.”

“The U.N. is supposed to stop invasions, not create them and not finance them,” said Trump.

Trump threatened to hit Russia with “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” if Putin doesn’t come to the table to end its war in Ukraine.

He claimed that would “stop the bloodshed .. very quickly” but also suggested fighting will not end as long as China and European nations continue buying Russian energy.

“They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?” Trump said.

Trump demanded on Tuesday that Hamas immediately release all hostages living and dead that it’s holding in Gaza, saying the time for partial releases is over.

Speaking to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump also criticized several European nations, including U.S. allies, for recognizing a Palestinian state, which he called a reward to Hamas for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel that sparked the current conflict.

“As if to encourage continued conflict, some in this body seek to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including October 7th. But instead of giving in to Hamas as ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message: release the hostages now.”

“Just release the hostages now.”

Trump says the Russia-Ukraine war should have been a ‘quick little skirmish,’ with Russia prevailing in a matter of days. Instead, it’s a become a years-long war.

The president repeated his 2024 campaign talking point that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine never would have happened had he been president from 2021-2025. At the same time, Trump expressed surprise he hasn’t been able to negotiate a peace deal after insisting throughout the campaign that he’d end the war quickly, if not on “Day One.”

“I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one,” Trump mused.

Trump said that after he returned to office, he sent Iran’s supreme leader a letter pledging “full cooperation” in exchange for Iran suspending its nuclear program.

“The regime’s answer was to continue their constant threats to their neighbors and U.S. interests throughout the region, and some great countries that are right nearby,” he said in the speech.

The president declared that many of Iran’s former military commanders “are no longer with us” as a result.

And he described Operation Midnight Hammer, a recent operation in which U.S. military aircraft bombed Iran’s key nuclear facilities.

The president used his speech to boast about his efforts to calm conflicts around the world, but said the U.N. has failed to help him.

Listing efforts to ease conflicts in several countries — inflating his role in some cases and the overall number of areas where he intervened in others, Trump 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,” Trump said.

He also dismissively noted that the “two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”

Trump said he could deliver his speech without notes without a teleprompter, but clearly was reading from a script.

Standing in front of top U.N. officials, before more than 150 world leaders, Trump blasted the international organization. He said they didn’t reach out to him on the various wars he says he has brought to a conclusion.

“I’ve always said the U.N. has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential,” Trump 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.”

At least twice in the opening minutes of his U.N. speech, Trump has taken swipes at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

It continues Trump’s tactic of bragging on the U.S. performance compared both to the Democratic administration and the rest of the world. Trump has mostly used general superlatives rather than verifiable facts to make such claims.

It also stands out for a head of state speaking at the U.N. to inject their own domestic politics into the international discourse.