President Trump said Friday that the United Nations has “great potential,” and he expects it to soon start operating in a brand-new manner.
“I have to say the United Nations has tremendous potential. It hasn’t been used over the years nearly as it should be,” Mr. Trump told reporters at an Oval Office meeting with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.
The president described the U.N. as “a power to bring people together, like nothing else.” He added that he has “a feeling that things are going to happen with the United Nations that we haven’t seen before.”
Mr. Trump was highly critical of the U.N. during the campaign and called it “obsolete.”
However, in an address the U.N. General Assembly last month, he made similar remarks about reforms taking shape and the institution’s potential as a force of good in the world.
“You need talent, and he’s got the talent,” Mr. Trump said, gesturing to Mr. Guterres, who took over the U.N. job this year. “We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back to you in about seven years.”
Mr. Guterres said that he was a “true believer that we live in a messy world but need a strong, reformed and modernized U.N.”
“We need a strong United States engaged, based on its traditional values — freedom, democracy, human rights,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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