New York Times reporter Farnaz Fassihi was left taken aback Tuesday after President Donald Trump openly threatened to “annihilate” the nation of Iran while addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
Delivering his address in New York Tuesday, Trump posed a rhetorical question regarding his deeply unpopular war against Iran.
“Will a deal be made,” he asked, before juxtaposing it with an alternative: “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly?” He also pondered aloud in front of representatives from the world over whether he should “drive [Iran] into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations.”
“It was jarring to hear the president of the United States openly threatening to annihilate a nation, considered a war crime, from the podium of the United Nations,” Fassihi wrote Tuesday.
Fassihi’s colleague at the Times, David E. Sanger, was equally taken aback.
“It was a remarkable moment: a threat from the U.N. floor, by a world leader, to wipe out an entire nation,” Sanger wrote.
While Trump has made similar threats in the past — including his infamous threat to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization in a single night — he’s yet to make such explicit threats in front of the United Nations General Assembly.
“This is an open admission and conclusive evidence of the war crime of pillage,” argued Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, a progressive foreign policy think tank.
The progressive media organization MeidasTouch quipped: “Broadcasting war crimes at the UN. Quite the move.”
Trump: "In January, at my direction, the United States military conducted a massive military operation penetrating deep into the Venezuelan capital ... it was a war. To the victor belong the spoils." pic.twitter.com/P5rSbVaPoS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2026