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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/sep\/22\/donald-trump-unga-speech?utm_source=cnn_Global+Briefing&utm_medium=email",
    "parsed_content": "Donald Trump at the 81st United Nations general assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on Tuesday. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton\/ReutersView image in fullscreenDonald Trump at the 81st United Nations general assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on Tuesday. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton\/ReutersDonald TrumpAnalysisTrump\u2019s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for himRobert Tait in WashingtonUS president may have upstaged the ghost of Soviet leader Khrushchev by musing destruction of fellow member stateTue 22 Sep 2026 14.23 EDTLast modified on Wed 23 Sep 2026 00.12 EDTShareDonald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had \u201ca big decision to make\u201d over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.Trump calls on allies to enforce \u2018complete economic isolation of Iran\u2019 in UN speechRead more\u201cWill a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild, and create a far greater country than it ever was before?\u201d he asked. \u201cOr 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 with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?\u201dPossibly not since Khrushchev, the late Soviet leader, brandished his shoe and allegedly banged it on a desk in 1960 in protest at a fellow delegate\u2019s speech has the annual gathering witnessed such a display of bellicosity from a superpower leader.But this seemed more shocking.The world may have become inured to Trump\u2019s dire threats to send Iran \u201cto the stone age\u201d or end its civilization \u2013 so often have they been issued, only to sometimes be followed by a ceasefire or negotiations. But hearing them voiced in a forum created in the aftermath of the second world war, with the explicit aim of preventing future conflicts, was disconcerting.Iran was the focal point of much of Trump\u2019s speech, which began with a catalogue of familiar boasts of his supposed achievements that seemed better fitted to a domestic audience.Whether or not the latest threat should be taken literally, little of what he said about Iran seemed reassuring. He appeared to play fast and loose with the facts, consciously or otherwise.The US president twice incorrectly asserted that the theocratic regime had held power for 51 years. In fact, the Islamic revolution that toppled the pro-western former Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and installed the current regime happened 47 years ago, in 1979.Trump also cited apparently inflated figures for the number of Iranians killed in anti-government protests last January, weeks before the war. \u201cThe same regime slaughtered over 72,000 of its citizens this year,\u201d he said, in support of his oft-stated declaration that Iran should never be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons.No definitive death toll has been established. But previous estimates of people killed in the brutal crushing of January\u2019s demonstrations \u2013 even including those previously stated by Trump himself \u2013 have been much lower.The ominous rhetoric was not limited to Iran.Members of the Cuban delegation were seen leaving the hall as he predicted the imminent collapse of the country\u2019s communist regime, which has been struggling to cope with a food security and humanitarian crisis amid tightening US embargoes.\u201cIt\u2019s an absolutely failed state, it\u2019s failing like never before, and it will fall,\u201d Trump said. \u201cMarco Rubio [the US secretary of state] is handling a negotiation. He\u2019s deep into negotiations with Cuba. Let\u2019s see what happens.\u201dUS actions in Venezuela, where special forces last January seized the strongman president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, and spirited him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges, was also cited as an ominous warning to other adversaries \u2013 as well as a vocal statement of how the administration would behave in Latin America, Washington\u2019s supposed \u201cback yard\u201d, if it felt its interests threatened.\u201cOur actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the western hemisphere, and, if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States,\u201d Trump declared.He was brazenly unabashed in hailing a recent US oil deal with the interim Venezuelan president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, that he claimed put the US and Venezuela jointly in control of more than 60% of the world\u2019s oil.\u201cIt was perhaps the biggest deal ever made. To the victor belong the spoils \u2013 you\u2019ve all heard that,\u201d Trump said.There was outright antipathy for the international criminal court, which Trump called an \u201cout-of-control institution\u201d and \u201can evil group of people\u201d. \u201cWe will never allow US service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us,\u201d he said.Given his pugnacious stance towards US adversaries, it probably came as a relief to Washington\u2019s traditional friends that Trump had relatively kind words for them. It was a far cry from his general assembly speech a year ago, when he warned European allies \u201cyour countries are all going to hell\u201d because of immigration.This time, in a pointed message, Trump praised Nato\u2019s secretary general, Mark Rutte, as a \u201cgreat leader\u201d \u2013 a marked departure from his previous denunciations of the military alliance as \u201cobsolete\u201d and a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d.He lauded Denmark as \u201can incredible, beautiful country\u201d, just days after announcing an agreement with it over Greenland, following prolonged tensions over the territory, which Trump had previously threatened to annex.With that issue seemingly settled \u2013 at least for now \u2013 the president declared his intention to flex his muscles on a new battleground: artificial intelligence, or AI.Echoing recent social media posts, Trump likened recent calls to slow its development, on the grounds that its rapid development poses an existential threat to humankind, as a \u201cglobalist scheme\u201d hatched by the same forces he blamed for warnings of climate change, a premise he has long erroneously labelled a \u201choax\u201d.Part of the answer, he said, was to change its name. Henceforth it would cease to be called \u201cartificial\u201d (\u201cit makes it sound fake \u2013 and it\u2019s not fake\u201d) and would be called \u201csuper intelligence\u201d in all US government documents.\u201cWelcome to the new world of super intelligence,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s see if that goes. It\u2019s much more accurate. Let\u2019s see if I have any power. Maybe I do, maybe I don\u2019t.\u201dExplore more on these topicsDonald TrumpUnited NationsUS foreign policyIranCubaTrump administrationUS-Israel war on IrananalysisShareReuse this contentMost viewed Partner of woman killed by US hunter who allegedly mistook her for deer says death \u2018no accident\u2019\u2018I\u2019m 100% natural\u2019: how Japan\u2019s 90-year-old bodybuilder is still winning titlesCivil rights lawyer Ben Crump releases data from Nolan Wells\u2019 cellphoneMartin Rowson on Donald Trump\u2019s meeting with Xi Jinping \u2013 cartoonMeryl Streep\u2019s casting as Aslan has angered the Christian right. Don\u2019t they have more pressing issues?Ben Child",
    "published_at": "2026-09-22T18:23:08+00:00",
    "author_name": "Robert Tait",
    "site_name": "theguardian.com",
    "section": "US news",
    "publisher": "Guardian News and Media",
    "ai_headline": "Trump\u2019s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for him",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Donald Trump Threatens Iran Annihilation at UN General Assembly",
    "ai_excerpt": "Donald Trump's speech at the 81st UN General Assembly included a shocking threat to annihilate Iran, a move that has drawn comparisons to past bellicosity from superpower leaders. The US president also made controversial statements regarding Cuba, Venezuela, and the International Criminal Court, while praising traditional allies and announcing a new focus on 'super intelligence'.",
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        "Venezuela",
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