Trump at UN on Iran: 'Will a deal be made' or do I 'annihilate' them?
His speech did earn praise from attendees when he touted the military's success in reducing Iranian capabilities, saying "[t]hey were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more."
President Donald Trump on Tuesday presented his options to end the Iran war in a stark binary while addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
"I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world," Trump said. "Or 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?"
The remarks represent one of the more blunt moments of a U.S. president discussing foreign policy in recent history. But while Trump has typically been willing to push the limits of political decorum, he has reserved his harshest rhetoric for Iran, even promising that "a civilization will die" at one point in the conflict.
His speech did earn praise from attendees when he touted the military's success in reducing Iranian capabilities, saying "[t]hey were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more."
But not all of the speech drew a positive response. When Trump veered to the topic of Cuba, delegates from Havana outright walked out of the room as he called the communist regime a "failed state."
He further drifted into other foreign policy topics, announcing that the U.S. would build two military bases in Greenland as part of a deal with the Kingdom of Denmark.
Trump had long sought to purchase the island outright, but reached an agreement this week that secured U.S. military access and barred non-NATO bases on the island.
He also took the opportunity to encourage the adoption of the term "superintelligence" in place of "artificial intelligence."
"From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world's will be changed to use the much more accurate term 'super' as opposed to artificial. So it's super intelligence," he said.
Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.