Trump returns to UN at a moment of anxiety about Iran, AI and the future of the world body itself

FILE – President Donald Trump gestures as he addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at a tumultuous moment for the world — and for his presidency.
The global economy has been shaken by his decision to launch a war against Iran. Anxiety about the social impact being wrought by artificial intelligence is surging. And questions linger about the future of the United Nations itself with Trump’s scaling back U.S. financial support for the United Nations.
After his speech to the annual gathering of world leaders, Trump is expected to hold talks with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a more informal meeting with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, according to the White House.
He’s also set to meet with leaders and senior officials from Gulf Cooperation Council nations — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates — to discuss the way ahead with the war in Iran and growing concern about recent Iran-backed rebel attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The visit to the U.N. comes when Trump’s foreign policy approach — particularly his decision to start a war with Iran — has become a drag on his fellow Republicans’ hopes of retaining control of both chambers of Congress during the coming midterm elections. Nevertheless, administration officials signaled Trump will make the case in his address that the world is better off for his leadership.
“We expect the president will highlight how he has and his administration have confronted complex problems head-on around the world,” Ambassador Mike Waltz, Trump’s chief envoy to the international body, told reporters.
Waltz also suggested that Trump might revisit some of his long-held criticism of the United Nations. The president has criticized the body as being ineffectual on issues of war and peace, has claimed the organization is perpetuating a “con job” by emphasizing the need to address global warming, and has asserted the U.N. has promoted the “invasion” of migrants into Europe.

Iran war to loom large
In last year’s address at the U.N., Trump claimed the U.S. had “demolished” Iran’s nuclear capabilities after he ordered the June 2025 bombardment of three key facilities.
He returns to the General Assembly nearing the seven-month mark of a new war against Iran that he insists is necessary to address a nuclear threat posed by Iran.
The war has grown more complicated even though strikes by the United States and Israel have killed much of Iran’s top leadership and destroyed its air force and navy, while a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil has left Tehran in economic shambles.
The passage of oil from other Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz has improved in recent weeks with the help of the U.S. Navy helping guide commercial vessels through the narrow waterway. Still, the flow of oil is significantly below pre-war levels. And Brent crude continues to hover around $100 per barrel, up from about the $70 range in the weeks before the start of the war.
The energy market continues to be spooked. Saudi Arabia earlier this month shuttered a key pipeline that acted as a relief valve for oil blocked in the Gulf. The kingdom made the move after the pipeline came under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq.
At the same time, territorial grabs by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels, another Iranian-backed group, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait has now made it treacherous for oil carriers to use that Red Sea shipping lane.
Majed al-Ansari, chief spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said Monday that Qatar and other mediators are trying to penetrate a “deep deficit of trust” between the U.S. and Iran and get the sides back to negotiations.
“Either we sign a deal now or sign a deal 10 months away,” said said al-Ansari, speaking at the Concordia Annual Summit, a global affairs forum taking place during the U.N.’s high-level week. The only difference is the number of dead and destruction that we see.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Trump is open to meeting with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, while he’s in New York for the General Assembly.
“This is a president that will meet with anybody for the most part, because he believes that engaging with people is important if you’re going to solve problems,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Today” show. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to end up agreeing with them, but it’s important.”

The administration will sign a Greenland deal
At last year’s General Assembly, Trump touted his record as a peacemaker and claimed that “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize” for his administration’s efforts mediating several conflicts around the globe.
This year, his administration is set to sign an agreement on the sidelines of the General Assembly with Danish and Greenlandic leaders that aims to set the pathway for the expansion of the U.S. military’s footprint on Greenland.
The deal, announced last week, came together after Trump repeatedly threatened to “take over” Greenland, a territory of NATO-ally Denmark, by military force if necessary.
Under the deal, Greenland remains Denmark’s territory.

Trump’s frustration with Russia-Ukraine war mounts
The president could also touch on Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine during the address — a conflict that during his 2024 campaign he predicted would be resolved on Day One of his second term.
The president has routinely expressed frustration about the conflict. He hasn’t obscured that his patience is being tested by Ukraine’s targeting of Russia’s diesel refineries — an issue that’s added to oil markets’ volatility — and Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy grid.
Trump last week asserted that he got the two sides to agree to not target each other’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was willing to go along with Trump’s plan if Russia abided by it. Russia said it could only go along with Trump’s energy truce proposal if Western energy sanctions on Moscow were lifted first.
The two sides have continued carrying out strikes on refineries and other energy infrastructure.

Trump to hold critical talks with UK, Japan and Venezuela leaders
The president is set to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Burnham, the center-left Labour Party leader who became prime minister in July.
With elevated oil prices dragging the British economy, he may also be eager to discuss ways to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He announced on Monday that he would send a Royal Air Force plane to the Mideast to help Saudi Arabia repel attacks from Houthi rebels. The plane will refuel Saudi planes during defensive missions.
Trump’s meeting with Japan’s Takaichi comes as he prepares to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week to Washington for a state visit.
The historically complicated Japan-China relationship became even more fraught after Takaichi said last year that Japan’s military could intervene if China were to take action against Taiwan, a semi-autonomous island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory. The tensions have spilled over into the China-Japan economic relationship.
Trump’s engagement with Rodriguez, Venezuela’s interim president, will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump in January ordered a U.S. military operation to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro and swept him off to New York City to face federal narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. Maduro’s lawyers have objected to the U.S. military action that snatched him from power.