Meltdown at the UN? Trump touts being a peacemaker while asking if he should annihilate Iran
Members of Iran’s delegation left the chamber as President Donald Trump stood before the 81st United Nations General Assembly and framed the choice still facing him nearly seven months into a war with their country.
“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” he asked the packed hall in New York on September 22, 2026. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell?”
The 37-minute address cast the same president as both peacemaker and potential destroyer. “While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them,” Trump told the room. He described the Iranian leadership as a terrorist regime behaving badly “not because they are strong and confident, but because they are weak and desperate.” He predicted that oil prices “will come plummeting down even lower than they were at the start of the conflict. And they were very low in the United States. They were really low.”
The war he was defending began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched military action that included the assassination of Ali Khamenei. A ceasefire mediated by Pakistan and Qatar took hold on June 14, with a 60-day extension meant to open the way to a final settlement. The conflict was entering its eighth month as Trump spoke. A recent United Nations Human Rights Council report had found “reasonable grounds to believe” the United States committed war crimes in attacks on an Iranian school and a residential area in February.
Trump spent much of the speech justifying that campaign as the demonstration of peace through strength and the prevention of an Iranian nuclear weapon. He told the assembly he expected a deal after the November midterm elections. He also insisted the United States would not surrender its lead in artificial intelligence to China. “The use of the word artificial makes it sound fake. It’s not fake, it’s actually amazing. But we have to be careful,” he said, preferring the term super intelligence.
He rejected the idea of shared global authority. “There is no global government,” Trump declared. He warned that American power would be used without hesitation: “If necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States.” When he turned to Cuba, calling it a failed state and accusing its government of cultivating ties to left-wing groups inside the United States, the Cuban delegation also appeared to walk out.
Earlier that day United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had delivered his farewell remarks, warning that fault lines were widening and that superpowers needed to recognize their power was not so super. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke just before Trump and said Brazil did not fit in anyone’s backyard. Trump’s own tone stayed fixed on national sovereignty and American military reach.
On the sidelines the same day he signed a Greenland security agreement with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. The pact kept Greenland as Danish territory while giving the United States broad access and plans for two major military bases. Trump also met British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodríguez. He was scheduled to meet leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman—with Iran expected to dominate those talks. U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz had previewed that the speech would stress peace deals, Western Hemisphere actions and ensuring Iran never obtained a nuclear weapon.
After the address Trump confirmed to reporters that American and Iranian officials had met directly on the sidelines, the first such contact verified since the war began. “It was a very good meeting,” he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that Trump remained open to seeing Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was scheduled to address the General Assembly the following day. Katy Tur later examined the full sequence for MS NOW.