Trump rips the U.N. as 'just a club' for people to 'have a good time'

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images))

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday afternoon took to Twitter to air his thoughts about the United Nations, and he apparently doesn't think much of the international diplomacy group:

Trump did say the organization has "such great potential" but neglects to use it, calling the state of the U.N. "so sad!" Trump's missive was met with some criticism, with some former U.N. personnel attacking it as tone-deaf.

On Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted through a resolution demanding Israel cease to build settlements in disputed lands in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The U.S. declined to exercise its veto power, a decision Trump slammed; Trump's ambassador to Israel has called for moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, which would upend decades of precedent. Israel already announced Monday that it would proceed with its settlement-building in East Jerusalem, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly plans to brief the Trump administration on intelligence it gathered allegedly proving President Obama spearheaded the U.N. resolution against Israeli settlement-building.

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Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.