Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Secretary-General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres of the United Nations in New York City

President Trump. Please.

Secretary-General Guterres. I will repeat what I said. [Laughter]

President Trump. Very—you could. You go ahead. That's—that would be very nice. Very nice.

Secretary-General Guterres. I'll repeat what I said.

President Trump. I'd love that, actually.

Secretary-General Guterres. No, I want to say that you are very much welcome, Mr. President.

President Trump. Thank you.

Secretary-General Guterres. The United States was absolutely essential in the founding of the U.N. And for decades, we have relied on the United States as our major political and financial supporter. Thanks to the—and also to the American people——

President Trump. Yes.

Secretary-General Guterres. ——which we are very grateful about.

On the other hand, I believe there are many areas where we can cooperate in a positive way, and I would think that the most important is peace. You have selected peace as a central objective of your mandate——

President Trump. It's true.

Secretary-General Guterres. ——and you have been going north and south, east and west, in all possible situations, getting or trying to get cease-fires, alleviating tensions, making peace agreements, or build—the building blocks of peace agreements.

President Trump. Yes.

Secretary-General Guterres. And I want to reassure you that the United Nations—from me to our teams on the ground to our missions—we are entirely at your disposal——

President Trump. Thank you.

Secretary-General Guterres. ——to be able to work together for a just peace in the world, based on our common values——

President Trump. Thank you very much.

Secretary-General Guterres. ——with the charter, with the Constitution of the United States.

President Trump. Right.

Secretary-General Guterres. And one thing is, for me, extremely important: is that the suffering—the horrible suffering of millions of people in the world can be stopped.

President Trump. Right.

Secretary-General Guterres. And we fully appreciate your engagement in that regard.

President Trump. Well, thank you very much. It's always an honor to be here. We've done this before, and this was a little more exciting because of the escalator and the teleprompter, but these things happen.

But I will tell you that your people have treated us with great respect. Our country is behind the United Nations a hundred percent. I think the potential of the United Nations is incredible, really incredible. It can do so much. So I'm behind it. I may disagree with it sometimes, but I am so behind it, because I think the potential for peace with this institution is so great.

So I just want to thank you for treating us so warmly. We very much appreciate being with you.

Thank you.

Secretary-General Guterres. Great pleasure.

President Trump. Thank you very much.

Secretary-General Guterres. Thank you very much.

[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Q. Mr. President, you had sharp criticism of the United Nations in your speech——