'Shall I annihilate the Islamic Republic?': Trump calls on nations to isolate Iran and threatens to ‘drive them into hell’
The US president told world leaders at the UN General Assembly they must "stand united" in the face of Iranian terror.
Donald Trump has threatened to drive Iran “into hell” and asked whether he should "annihilate the Islamic Republic” during a speech to world leaders in New York.
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Speaking at the annual United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, the US President called on fellow nations to join the US in “enforcing complete economic isolation of Iran until it stops its attacks on commercial ships, abandons its nuclear ambitions and ceases its support for terrorism.”
He said world leaders must "stand united" in the face of Iranian threats, claiming oil prices will return to stability if the Islamic Republic is economically cut off.
Trump then said the US has a “big decision” to make on the Middle East war, asking the room: "Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic - and do it quickly… Do I drive them into hell?”.
It comes as he gears up to meeting Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the first time during an annual gathering of world leaders this evening.
During his speech ahead of the meeting, Trump also repeated an earlier claim that Tehran is ready to “make a deal” following the US midterms, suggesting the regime is waiting to see how he performs.
“We won in a giant landslide, and I’ll be here for two-and-a-half years. The Republican Party is running, and I’ll be helping them.”
Mr Trump also claimed that “more oil is flowing than at any point since the start of the war” through the Strait of Hormuz as the US navy “has recently escorted more than one billion barrels of oil” out of the waterway that had been choked by Iran after the conflict began.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran teased an offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz "within seven days".
It came as delegates started arriving in New York for the annual conference earlier today, including Mr Burnham and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier, Mr Burnham was spotted strolling through Central Park with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez.
The PM is set to address attendees during the early hours of Wednesday UK time.
Elsewhere in his speech, Trump has rejected any effort to establish an international scheme to control artificial intelligence, which he said he wants to rename “super intelligence”
The US leader said: “The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now, here and after officially called super intelligence.“
Changing the name in that the use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake. It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing, but we have to be careful. In fact, it is exactly the opposite of what it purports.
“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.”
While he said that “every major new technology brings challenges, and super intelligence is no exception”, he likened those “who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming” to those who “are now saying that AI is going to kill us all”.
The speech was also disrupted when Cuba’s delegation walked out in the middle of Trump's address after he called their country an “absolutely failed state”.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Cuban regime has also spent decades coordinating with left-wing radicals and communist networks here in the United States, as our State Department has detailed. pic.twitter.com/Ya7akjChHE
— Department of State (@StateDept) September 22, 2026
The US president said Washington was “seeking fundamental change” in the country, but stopped short of using the words: “regime change”.
It comes as his administration continues its pursuit of a maximum pressure campaign aimed at derailing the government in the central American nation, warning of a “friendly takeover” to liberalise its economy
“We will not allow a haven for foreign adversaries to threaten America on our own doorstep, right at our doorstep, the Cuban regime has also spent decades coordinating with the left-wing radicals and communist networks here in the United States.“It’s failing like never before, and it will fall,” Trump said.
At least four members of Cuba’s delegation were then spotting leaving the room in protest.