President Donald Trump addressed the UN General Assembly’s general debate in New York on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, in a speech lasting roughly 40 minutes, according to the USA Today live blog of the proceedings.
On Iran, the president said he has a “big decision” on whether to “annihilate” the country or make a deal “that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country.” “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness?” Trump asked, adding: “I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” according to USA Today. He called Iran the “#1 sponsor of terror” and “the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more,” and said: “From the first day I entered the political arena, I have been unwavering, I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump went further than rhetoric, asking world leaders to join the United States in “enforcing the complete economic isolation of Iran until they stop their attacks on commercial shipping, relinquish their nuclear ambitions and cease their support of terror,” USA Today reported.
Members of the Iranian and Cuban delegations walked out of the Assembly Hall as Trump singled out their countries, according to The Times. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in New York on Sept. 21 and said it was time for Washington to “break free” from what he described as shackles regarding Israel, according to Iranian news agency IRNA via USA Today.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday morning the White House remains open to direct diplomacy with the Iranians on the UNGA sidelines: “We’re open to that… especially if it has the prospects of leading to something positive,” Rubio told NBC’s “Today” show, according to ZeroHedge.
Arab mediators are making tentative efforts to revive negotiations between Washington and Tehran this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Rubio told Fox News on Tuesday that ‘the president is open to a meeting with him or anybody,’ referring to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday put Trump’s approval rating at an all-time low of 32%, according to Reuters.
On Cuba, Trump declared the country “an absolutely failed state” and said “it will fall,” adding: “Communism will never be coming to America, but freedom will be coming to Cuba,” according to USA Today. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “deep into negotiations with Cuba,” USA Today reported. Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla responded on X, writing that Cuba is “a fully independent and sovereign country” and “not a threat to the US nor to any country,” according to The Sun.
On Greenland, Trump touted a new security agreement with Denmark expanding the U.S. military presence on the island — a deal signed on Tuesday at the UN, according to The Times. Trump said the deal lets the U.S. “do whatever is necessary to defend the American continent and also Europe,” according to USA Today. Trump confirmed in the speech that the U.S. will open two new military bases on Greenland under the agreement, according to the Washington Examiner. Greenland stays under Danish control, according to The Times, and Denmark and Greenland said their parliaments will need to ratify the terms before the agreement goes into effect, according to ZeroHedge — so the deal is signed but not yet final.
Trump called for the entire International Criminal Court — “an evil group of people” — to resign after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his actions in Gaza, according to the New York Post.
He also pledged to “rein in” artificial intelligence if necessary, nicknaming the technology “Super Intelligence,” while opposing international regulation of AI, the Post reported.
Trump defended his “Donroe doctrine” in the Western Hemisphere, including unilateral military strikes against alleged narcoterrorists in the Caribbean Sea and what the Washington Examiner described as the extraordinary, middle-of-the-night extradition of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela is now led by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, who was scheduled to meet Trump at the UN on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Trump also touted what the Wall Street Journal described as a controversial oil deal with Venezuela, in which the Pentagon will take a stake in a private company with rights to 17 oil fields in the country — though analysts say Venezuela’s decrepit oil industry will take years and billions of dollars of investment before production can rise significantly.
After the speech, Trump was set for bilateral meetings with leaders including British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, Greenland leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and representatives of six Gulf states, according to Reuters.
Update: Hours after his address, Trump told reporters that U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had held a three-hour meeting with Iranian representatives on the U.N. General Assembly sidelines earlier in the day, beginning around 10 a.m. ET. “It was a very good meeting… It went very well,” Trump said, adding that another meeting is planned “in the near future” and framing Tehran’s choice as “potential greatness or obliteration.” Witkoff added: “I feel very good right now.” There was no immediate Iranian confirmation of the meeting, and the disclosure appeared to undercut Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement earlier the same day that no meeting with the Iranians was scheduled.
USA Today live blog Sept 22, The Times, Washington Examiner, New York Post, Reuters, ZeroHedge, The Sun