The president has been critical of the organization, but the prestige it holds provides an opportunity to literally speak on the world stage.
Read more Republicans are breaking from Trump on Iran. So what will they do about it?
In today’s edition … Why it matters that a Trump-backed Nevada Republican exaggerated his military record … Should the U.S. welcome Xi … but first …
The United Nations seems to hold a special place in President Donald Trump’s heart.
He has been critical of the organization, which is currently holding its 2026 General Assembly. But, while he has pulled the United States from U.N. agencies like the World Health Organization, withdrawn from numerous international organizations, conventions and treaties — including 66 in one fell swoop in January — and questioned the United States’ membership in NATO multiple times, he’s never threatened to leave the U.N. itself.
That may be in part because of the prestige of the organization — and the chance it provides to literally speak on the world stage. Trump has taken every opportunity during his presidency to go to the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings, and each time, has used his speech to proclaim that America isn’t just first under his leadership, but always on top.
Those speeches haven’t always gone well, like in 2018, when members of the audience laughed at his claim to have accomplished more than “almost any other administration” in U.S. history. (Trump insisted they were laughing with him.) But he returns time and again.
This year, Trump used his address to suggest he may “annihilate” Iran if its leaders don’t agree to a peace deal, and talked about how his administration is “working with many nations in this room” to solve challenges — touting a U.S. resolution condemning Iran’s attacks on commercial shipping as receiving “more co-sponsors from U.N. member nations than any Security Council resolution in history.”
One reason Trump continues to engage with the U.N. is that he wants to change it, Brett D. Schaefer, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the United Nations said, with his primary goal seeming to be streamlining institutions to more closely align it with his administration’s objectives.
“Some organizations inside the U.N. system he has pulled out from,” Schaefer said. “Others, he has requested funding for and implicitly through those requests endorsed continued U.S. participation.”
Under Trump, the U.S. has withdrawn from UNESCO and the U.N. Human Rights Council, but has also given some initiatives, including humanitarian aid programs more funding.
Another reason Trump has stuck with the U.N. is likely that it seems to hold a unique place in his psyche. The president has spoken many times about his fondness for its headquarters. He has offered to renovate the complex several times, and said at a 2005 Senate subcommittee hearing that he likes the United Nations building so much he built an apartment across the street from it.
“The fact that the United Nations is in New York, is very important to me, and very important to the world,” Trump said during the hearing, which was about renovating the U.N. building. “So, I am a big fan.”
Construction on the building was finished in 1952, when Trump was just 6 years old, making it a fixture in the New York skyline throughout his formative years. The headquarters’ completion was a major news story. Its architects were celebrities. Its glamorous reputation landed it in Rolex ads. And it was a key location in hit movies like “North by Northwest” and “Batman” (1966).
“It must have made a powerful impression on him as a young man, it was such a big deal,” said Jonathan Mahler, author of “The Gods of New York,” which explores late 1980s NYC and Trump’s rise to prominence, and a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine. “Building there on the East River in the heart of Manhattan, it must have given [the U.N.] a certain kind of power and glamour even that is almost a little hard to imagine now.”
For all Trump may want to change the U.N. and for all he may admire it, Schaefer noted that Trump’s visits to the U.N. aren’t really about “outcomes or objectives.” Instead, he just “seems to really enjoy speaking before the General Assembly.”
Put another way: Going to the U.N. is fun. That is, for Trump, the U.N. seems to be, as he once put it, “a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”
We exclusively reported yesterday that David Flippo, a Trump-backed congressional candidate in Nevada, inflated his military record multiple times in recent years by claiming he received a Bronze Star “for valor” during his two-decade Air Force career.
Flippo received a Bronze Star in 2004 for his service, but not the Bronze Star with valor, a much rarer distinction that recognizes heroism in direct combat with an enemy. Experts on military awards say such exaggerations are tantamount to lying. The Flippo campaign acknowledged the misrepresentations but downplayed them as “honest mistakes” by staff members.
So why does this matter?
As we spoke with military experts, it became quite clear that while most civilians would not know the difference between the two Bronze Stars, inside military circles it is a “big deal” to misrepresent which one you were awarded.
“It is a big deal,” said Doug Sterner, a recipient of two Bronze Stars and one of the nation’s foremost experts on military awards. “It’s pretty sad that this is a multiple-time thing. It shows a pattern of deception. It is someone trying to give an impression of their service that is not true.”
Jason Dempsey, a retired Army infantry officer and fellow at the Center for a New American Security — a Washington think tank focused on national security — said Flippo was “grasping for unearned valor.”
Read more Trump is plowing ahead with an unpopular arch
“It denigrates everybody’s service for folks to promote themselves this way,” Dempsey said. “He apparently missed the training on officership and integrity.”
Flippo made the claim in campaign materials at least three times: Once in his announcement video for a failed congressional campaign in 2024 and twice in fundraising emails this year.
After The Post contacted the Flippo campaign on Wednesday, the three-year-old video was deleted from social media. Flippo said his campaign’s video editors “made a mistake” by conflating his Bronze Star with another award he received, the Outstanding Unit Award with Valor, and apologized for “not paying closer attention to the specifics of that ad.” He called the exaggeration “an honest mistake.”
When The Post presented the Flippo campaign about the fundraising emails, the candidate’s spokesperson, Rory McShane, wrote, “A copywriter accidentally using old talking points does not a scandal make.”
“Lt. Col. Flippo has already apologized for not proofing the material closer,” McShane wrote and accused The Post of “trying to fabricate a scandal.”
Flippo is the favorite to win his congressional race. Nonpartisan race prognosticators rate the race as “solid Republican,” and no Democrat has won the seat since it was created after the 1980 census. But Democrats, buoyed by the national environment, are taking an increased interest in the contest.
You can read our full report here.
Maine Morning Star: The subtext of Maine gubernatorial hopeful Bobby Charles’s event with Chris Christie was clear: He is not standing next to Trump. Christie is a Trump adviser-turned-Trump critic and, during the event, broke with Trump “on several key issues affecting Maine.”
Georgia Recorder: Georgia Democrats are growing increasingly hopeful they can flip the state’s House of Representatives this cycle. It would take a net gain of 10 seats, a tough hill to climb. Democrats last controlled the chamber in 2004.
San Joaquin Valley Sun: California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency this week for the forthcoming El Niño winter. Experts expect the changing weather pattern could bring more intense weather to California this year.
We asked for your thoughts on Democrats’ 2028 nominating fight, and you shared varied views on who you would like to win and who you think will.
Joanne Minuete wrote that she “would love a truly intelligent, diplomatic nominee that shows integrity and would be an honorable representative of the U.S. … like Pete Buttigieg.”
“It will never happen,” Minuete added.
“I think that Mark Kelly is the dark horse that will rise to the top,” Lisa Constance wrote of the Arizona senator. “The Dems have a great back bench but they have to be strategic in who they invest in.”
That was echoed by Susan Runholt: “I have a strong early favorite: Mark Kelly. His background as an astronaut and a senator attest to his intelligence and leadership qualities. When I picture him in the role of president, I’m proud of everything he stands for. Strong vote for Kelly.”
A few of you mentioned Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. One reader mentioned former congressman Rahm Emanuel.
Gary Hattan said that he would like the nominee to be Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, but “unfortunately I think it will be Kamala [Harris].”
“JB Pritzker’s journey on the GLP-1 highway makes him the early front-runner in my book,” added Paul Gutermann, referring to the Illinois governor. “[Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear] is too mild, [Pennsylvania Gov. Josh] Shapiro is charismatic, but I fear his religion makes him unpalatable in too many places. Neither Harris nor Newsom have the wide enough appeal.”
And Ken Burleson added, “I would like any Democratic nominee but I have two dark-horse candidates. Namely [Senate candidate] James Talarico of Texas and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.”
Thank you for all the responses. My colleague Matthew Choi has a great piece on Democrats’ shadow campaign.
Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington yesterday. But should he have? This question arises nearly every time a leader who has been accused of being a dictator comes to the United States. Is this kind of diplomacy needed to avoid further conflict? What do you think? Let me and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Read more Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson criticizes Supreme Court’s use of emergency docket
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on X at @merica.
