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

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations that stood in stark contrast to calls for international cooperation and restraint. He espoused a militaristic vision for the United States, unbound by global regulations, and asserted that the nation would disregard international AI governance. Trump rejected the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction, stating "to the victor belong the spoils" in reference to the recent overthrow of the Venezuelan government by US forces.

His most shocking assertion, however, addressed the ongoing conflict in Iran. Trump proposed a binary choice between negotiating a deal or swiftly "annihilating the Islamic Republic." This provocative remark came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that "killer robots must have no place in our future." The UN gathering also saw leaders like Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani warn of the Palestinian future being at a crossroads as Israel expands settlements in the West Bank.

Other countries raised alarms about global unrest and criticized American actions. In contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron urged nations to reaffirm their commitment to international law and the UN system. The US recently signed a security deal with Greenland and Denmark, which includes prohibiting non-NATO and non-EU countries from strategic sectors.

Macron called for a moratorium on Russian energy site strikes by Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would be ready to cease strikes on Russian energy sites if Moscow agreed to do the same. The UN Security Council will discuss the war on Wednesday. US attempts to broker a deal to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine have stalled in recent months.

Guterres had previously warned of the "specter of ethnic cleansing" in Israel's expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Turkish President Erdogan called for the immediate reconstruction of Gaza and greater pressure on Israel, while Macron decried the devastation in Gaza as a "spectacle that shames us all." Guterres called for US-Chinese dialogue on the future of AI, likening it to Cold War-era US-Soviet engagement.

But Trump dismissed international regulation of the technology, calling such proposals a "globalist scheme." On climate change, Guterres criticized global energy companies for treating the atmosphere like an "open sewer." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, running for re-election, defended his country's independence, rejecting allegations that Brazil is subject to anyone's "backyard."

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez angrily reacted to Trump's claims that Cuba "will fall," with Cuban delegates leaving the room during the speech, reflecting exceptionally strained relations between Washington and Havana.