The Reaction to Trump’s Speech at the U.N. Was Revealing

War Stories Trump Just Threatened to Annihilate Iran. He’s Given the World Very Little Reason to Take Him Seriously. What sort of world leader talks like this? By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Fred Kaplan? Sept 22, 20263:23 PM Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Over the past year, Donald Trump’s actions on the world stage have ushered in a new era, in which most of the world’s leaders realize they no longer need to pretend to respect the president of the United States. Their reception of his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday made clear that this era has firmly taken hold. His 38-minute address was interrupted just four times for mild applause—when he said that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, that all of Israel’s hostages had been freed from Gaza, and that no international bureaucracy will pass a tax (as if this would have a chance of happening), and to thank his wife, Melania, for heading a group that recovered Ukrainian children who had been kidnapped by Russia. Otherwise, crickets, and deservedly so. His previous U.N. speeches have been jammed with bluster and bunkum, but none more so than this one. He began with boasts that seemed meant for a domestic audience—and that were clearly false to everyone in the room. “Our country is stronger today than ever before”—this, as the U.S. military is failing to subdue Iran, a third-rate power, despite firing bombs and missiles at more than 15,000 targets. “Our economy is the envy of the world”—this, as the rest of the world maneuvers to withdraw assets from U.S. markets and seek alternative supply chains. “The entire world is being lifted by the wealth, strength, spirit, and momentum of a newly energized and very powerful United States of America”—when, in fact, the world is suffering from an energy crisis created by Trump’s unnecessary war, which has moreover revealed weaknesses in our military arsenal. Trump also said, “We inherited a dark age of America from the previous administration, and we turned it into the golden age of America”—a claim that no president should have to make if it were true, and that anyone looking at any data would know is not true. The speech was strewn with falsehoods that must have appalled even sympathetic listeners in the chamber. Of Iran: “They were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more.” Tell that to shippers who still refuse to send their cargo into the Strait of Hormuz. Or to the Saudis, whose gateway for oil exports—and even their capital city—was just attacked by Iranian-backed Houthis. He claimed that Iran ignored his offers to negotiate a deal before he launched his air assaults seven months ago. But in fact, just days before the raids began, Iran offered to suspend enriching its uranium for three years, to limit enrichment afterward to very low levels, and to allow international inspectors to verify compliance. When it came to the problem of Iran, he claimed, “many presidents and many others just wanted to ignore it.” Never mind that President Barack Obama, along with the leaders of five other countries, secured a 159-page accord that was well on its way to dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, until Trump scuttled it and reimposed sanctions in 2018. That move, which had been encouraged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who didn’t want Iran reentering the global economy), spurred Iran to restart its program. Even so, Trump once again muddied his own waters by claiming that Operation Midnight Hammer—his bombing raid on three enriched-uranium sites in June 2025—“obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. In that case, why did he need to start a full-scale war in February 2026—a war, by the way, that has attacked no additional sites related to nuclear weapons? And yet, he told his audience of world leaders, he now has “a big decision to make.” Should he make a deal with Iran—something that he believes will happen after the midterm elections—“or do I annihilate the Islamic republic, and do it quickly? … Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival?” What sort of world leader, besides a madman, talks like this? And to what end? Annihilation implies killing much of the Iranian population (it’s hard to separate the regime from its people), which Trump said at the start of the war he wanted to protect. He then turned from bloodthirsty threats to a reprise of his self-congratulatory bit about ending eight wars, taking it several steps further by reading aloud the letters of thanks that leaders of Pakistan, Armenia, Cambodia, and other countries sent him praising his “extraordinary statesmanship” and “innovative diplomacy.” First, only a very insecure man feels the need to recite rave reviews of his performance on the world (or any other) stage. Second, as others have noted, the claim is exaggerated at best. Some of those wars are still going on; others Trump played little or no role in settling. He said an end to the Russia–Ukraine war—which he thought at the start of the term would be easy to solve, thanks to his belief that he’s great friends with Vladimir Putin—“is going to happen quicker than people understand.” He made the same casually confident claim about ending the war with Iran, saying he “will definitely get it done, one way or the other.” He also boasted of the deal—which he would be signing later that day—securing U.S. security in Greenland, ignoring (perhaps not knowing) that the deal is pretty much a reaffirmation of a treaty signed in 1951 (and still in effect). If his boasts mean he will no longer threaten to annex Greenland, that’s good. But the deal is nothing new. Meanwhile, he blamed “cowards and traitors” for perpetrating the hoax that the war has left the U.S. military low on vital munitions—when, in fact, this was the conclusion of a recent report by his own Defense Department’s inspector general. He claimed that his attacks on alleged drug boats coming out of Venezuela have destroyed 97 percent of the narcotics coming into the region by sea. In fact, the Drug Enforcement Administration has concluded that the strikes—which killed more than 200 people (some possibly real drug traffickers, some fishermen, some both)—have not reduced the flow of drugs into the U.S. He lauded Secretary of State Marco Rubio for organizing a deal that would “fundamentally change” (read: overthrow) the “failing state” of Cuba, claiming that the regime is supported by “left-wing radicals” here at home, such as the Communist Party of the United States of America, antifa, and the Democratic Socialists of America. This is nuts. To paraphrase what the great radical protester Saul Alinsky once said of the New Left, the CPUSA couldn’t organize a luncheon, much less a revolution. Antifa is largely mythical. And the DSA? The day before, Trump chummily met, for the third time, with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, America’s most visible and popular democratic socialist, wishing him well and congratulating him on his accomplishments. Winding into the stretch, Trump pissed on his hosts’ doorstep, condemning the U.N. for “imposing the far-left agenda of global bureaucrats.” He also called for the dismantlement of the International Criminal Court, which he characterized as an “anti-America tribunal,” an “evil group of people,” and a “rogue institution.” He then mocked one of the main topics of this year’s General Assembly—an effort to put restraints on artificial intelligence, which Trump said should be called superintelligence, because the word artificial makes it sound “fake.” He claimed that A.I.’s fearmongers are “the same people” who said global warming would kill everybody in 12 years and who ranted about “the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.” But no experts have made such drastic claims about global warming, and some of the biggest worriers about A.I. include some of the Silicon Valley scientists who helped create it. Trump sees A.I. as a purely benevolent economic engine, saying, “We’re leading now over China by a lot … and we’re going to keep it that way”—no doubt disappointing those who hoped he and Xi Jinping might work out some rules of the road at their summit in Washington later this week. He added, “I’m not going to stifle the growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” If dangers arise, he said, they can be handled by the Department of Justice—which might be the funniest thing Trump has ever said. He concluded on a note of sheer mendacity, given what he had said before, calling on his fellow leaders to “build a future for our people that is brighter, more hopeful, more magnificent than ever before. God bless the nations of the world”—except, presumably, the ones he’s thinking about annihilating—and “God bless America.” The good news about Trump’s speech is that no one had any reason to pay any attention to it. It came off as the empty bombast of a declining leader who thinks—or perhaps just pretends to think—that he’s still in control. Donald Trump Iran United Nations