Trump gives Iran 'deal or annihilation' ultimatum at UN, touts US dominance

President Donald Trump used the UN General Assembly stage to confront Iran with a stark choice: strike a deal or face annihilation. He suggested a nuclear agreement could be reached shortly after the US midterm elections in November, while warning that military pressure would intensify if talks collapsed. Trump also expressed confidence in an early end to the war in Ukraine and used the address to assert American dominance in the Western Hemisphere and in the race for AI supremacy over China.

Speaking at the high-level general debate of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (local time), Trump said he faced "a momentous decision" on Iran and laid out two options: a negotiated path to reconstruction or Iran's "annihilation."

"Will I make a deal with Iran so they can rebuild and become a far greater nation than they have ever been before, or will I rapidly annihilate Iran and never give them the chance to kill people and destroy nations again?" he said.

He then warned: "Or will I drive them into hell with no chance of survival, no hope of future prosperity or legacy for their children?" The Iranian delegation walked out of the General Assembly hall as Trump delivered the remarks.

Trump nonetheless left the door open to diplomacy. "I believe a deal will be made right after the election," he said, directly naming the period following the November midterms as his target for a breakthrough and pressing Tehran to make a decision.

He said he would "never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon" and urged the international community to join an economic isolation campaign against Tehran until it halted attacks on commercial shipping and abandoned its nuclear ambitions.

"If we stand together, we will soon see a world free from the threat of Iranian terror that has lasted for 51 years," Trump said, adding that oil prices would "drop far lower than they were when the conflict began."

He shrugged off concerns that a prolonged conflict with Iran could deplete US ammunition stocks. "We have more ammunition than you can possibly imagine, and we are producing it at an unprecedented rate," he said.

On the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old war in Ukraine, Trump expressed confidence in an early end. "We are working very closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and we will get it done," he said. "It will be resolved much faster than people think." Before the speech, in a brief exchange with reporters, he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "settle the war."

Trump delivered a sharper message on the Western Hemisphere, which Washington regards as its backyard. He said the United States would not tolerate any hostile force gaining a foothold anywhere in the region and pledged to deploy military force if necessary to defend core American interests.

He called Cuba "a completely failed state" and predicted its current government would "ultimately collapse." Citing expanded US-Venezuela oil cooperation following the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, he declared: "To the victor go the spoils."

Trump described Greenland as "the northern frontier of North America" and claimed that a recent agreement between the United States, Denmark and Greenland had secured "permanent control" of the territory for Washington. He also announced plans to build two large military bases there.

On the technology front, Trump took direct aim at China. He flatly rejected international regulatory efforts to govern AI, saying he would not "stifle the growth of something bigger than the Industrial Revolution."

He announced that the US government would replace the term "AI" with "Super Intelligence" — or "SI" — in official documents going forward. "Whoever wins in SI wins," he said. "We are ahead of China and everyone else, and we will keep that lead."

Trump also turned his fire on the UN and other international institutions. He said the UN held "tremendous potential" but insisted it must stop "imposing the far-left agenda of globalist bureaucrats that nobody elected."

He went on to say: "There is no world government, and there will be no world taxes while I am president."

He attacked the International Criminal Court, calling it an "out-of-control" body and "a group of evil people," and urged member states to withdraw. "We will never allow American soldiers or anyone else to be investigated or put on show trials by an anti-American court that has no jurisdiction over us," he said.