'To the victor belong the spoils’: Trump stuns UN in fiery speech, threatens to annihilate Iran

US President Donald Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on September 22, 2026.

President Donald Trump laid out a vision on Tuesday of a militaristic US unbound by international rules in a UN speech contrasting starkly with pleas at the world body for cooperation and restraint.

Trump insisted the United States will not join global regulation of AI and urged countries to abandon the International Criminal Court which was set up to prosecute war crimes.

He also boasted about US control over Venezuelan oil, following the toppling of the government there by US forces, saying "to the victor belong the spoils."

His most jarring statement, however, addressed the nearly seven-month war in Iran. Trump said he had a "big decision" on whether to make a deal or "annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly."

Trump's divisive turn at the UN lectern came after the organization's outgoing leader Antonio Guterres raised the alarm on AI and bluntly warned "killer robots must have no place in our future."

Meanwhile, several leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani used speeches to warn that the future of the Palestinians was at a crossroads as Israel expands West Bank settlements.

Other countries whose leaders addressed the UN's flagship annual gathering sounded the alarm on widespread global unrest, while some criticized Washington's actions on the world scene.

In a sharp contrast to Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron called for countries to recommit to international law and the UN system.

"The question put to us, in very simple terms, is whether we want to live in this state of nature, with a kind of return to the law of the jungle, or in a civilized international society," he said.

Washington signed a security deal with the leaders of Greenland and Denmark after threatening to take Copenhagen's strategically important Arctic Circle territory by force.

One section of the deal, which will be widely seen as seeking to bar Russian influence, prohibits non-NATO and non-EU countries, from "strategic sectors."

The United States will also build two military bases in southern and eastern Greenland under the deal.

Macron urged a moratorium on energy site strikes by Russia and Ukraine, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would be ready to halt strikes on Russian energy sites if Moscow agrees to do likewise.