In Trump’s annihilation threat, a tiny space

Trump’s speech represented a very different conception, one in which American strength is itself the source of order.

3 min readSep 25, 2026 06:10 AM IST First published on: Sep 25, 2026 at 06:10 AM IST

US President Donald Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday appeared to have little regard for the foundational purpose of the organisation whose podium he was standing on. It was consistent with the doctrine that has driven the Trump administration in its second term: That US military and economic might will determine peace and order, not multilateral institutions and the gruelling work of diplomacy. Apart from his usual listing of what he describes as domestic triumphs, Trump threatened to “annihilate” Iran if a deal was not reached, declared that “freedom will be coming to Cuba” and presented US actions against Venezuela as both a victory and a warning to other countries. He also renewed his attack on climate science. On artificial intelligence — which he said will henceforth be called “superintelligence” in US documents — he dismissed warnings about AI risks as a “hoax”, a striking position to take on the eve of his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, when he had an opportunity to lay out the stakes of the US-China technological competition.

The US President, however, appears to have kept space for diplomacy. The US and Iran are locked in a stalemate, and if US reluctance to militarily assist Saudi Arabia in the face of Houthi gains is any indication, Trump is aware that further escalation will come with political costs ahead of the midterms. Shortly after the speech, he disclosed that US and Iranian officials had held three hours of talks in New York, with further talks expected. The threat of overwhelming force deployed simultaneously with the prospect of a negotiated settlement, a hallmark of his foreign policy so far, was again on display. Iran, too, while defiant, has left the door open for talks, with President Masoud Pezeshkian saying in his UN speech that Tehran is ready for dialogue “without accepting the language of force”.

Much of the credit for the UN Charter, which generally prohibits the threat or use of force against states, lies with the US. The UN itself was built, in large part, around an American conception of a rules-based international system in which even great powers would accept constraints on the use of force. Trump’s speech represented a very different conception, one in which American strength is itself the source of order.