At 1:47 this afternoon, during one of the most anticipated meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump sat beside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wearing an oversized suit that hung and bunched awkwardly while cameras from all over the world broadcast the moment live.
The meeting was supposed to focus on ending the war in Ukraine, and their press conference was the opportunity to talk about how they planned to get there. But instead of giving Zelenskyy the opportunity to speak, Donald Trump commandeered nearly the entire 8+ minute discussion. After Zelenskyy quickly gave his opening remarks, Donald Trump did not allow President Zelenskyy to say another word.
But what was said during that time is even more disturbing. While seated right next to a man whose country is under attack, with a war raging back at home, Donald Trump used the time to talk about the attacks and war on Iran that he himself has started. Completely unaware of the inappropriateness of his words, or how truly horrifying what he was saying was, he threatened to commit an atrocity against an entire country, ending their very existence. “It’s greatness, potential greatness, or obliteration. It’s two choices. I mean, it’s in one case it’s obliteration, and the other alternative is potential greatness. It could be a great country.”
But maybe the most bizarre thing that came out of that short press conference was when Trump took what should have been a serious discussion, one which he has noted multiple times involved the killing of 25,000 people every month, and decided that was the right time to share how excited he was for President Xi from China to visit and that what he really cares about is building a ballroom to host “hot” parties. “I wish we had the ballroom. If we had the ballroom, we could have 2,000 people, but we have a very small room, but uh, as one of the papers reported, that’s the hottest ticket that they’ve said in a long time.” As he said this, President Zelenskyy, who was there working hard to bring peace to his country, tried desperately to keep a straight face and maintain decorum while the madman sitting next to him rambled on about how excited he was about his upcoming dinner with a dictator.
Those nine minutes would be a preview of what Donald Trump would show the world throughout the rest of his time at the United Nations. His remarks often sounded more like a rally speech than the words of an American president addressing world leaders, and each time he spoke, he revealed a little more of what the world now sees when the President of the United States steps onto the global stage.
The first sign that this was going to be an embarrassing day for Trump and our country came almost immediately after he entered the United Nations building. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was standing among the pool of credentialed press there to cover the General Assembly when she called a question over to him as he walked through the doors. “Two-thirds of Americans don’t think the U.S. is winning the war with Iran. When will it end?” Trump did not answer her and acted as if he hadn’t heard the question at all or even seen her. But seconds later, standing in front of the press, he looked toward Collins and said, “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here. You should not be here covering me. You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.” Collins calmly pointed out that she had been credentialed by the United Nations, not by his administration. Then, as Trump stepped onto the escalator, another reporter could be heard mocking him from behind, calling out, “Be careful with the stairs! Be careful with the stairs!” in reference to the infamous scene one year ago when the escalator carrying Trump and Melania suddenly stopped, forcing them to walk the rest of the way up.
Then came his address to the General Assembly later that morning. The speech lasted almost 37 minutes, with Trump struggling through a low-energy campaign speech filled with claims about how great the United States is and how great it is doing under his leadership. The reception was cold, with many leaders staring back with completely blank looks as the diminished and compromised leader of what was once the free world rambled on in front of some of the most influential leaders in the world. After he had cycled through the same talking points he repeats at nearly every campaign speech he gives, he really got going, at one point threatening to annihilate a nation of more than 90 million people. “I have a big decision to make,” he told them. “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? 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?” He conveniently predicted that this “deal” with Iran would come “right after the election,” as he explained to the room that the Iranians were “waiting to see how I do on the midterm election.” Right around this time, members of the Iranian delegation began walking out. The Cuban delegation would do the same later in his speech. The rest of the room continued to sit in silence while the speech just dragged on.
When he got to the Venezuela part of his speech, he used words that no American president should ever say about a sovereign nation, whether in an official speech or not: “To the victor belong the spoils.” Saying out loud that America was entitled to take from another country because we had defeated them. He also made the false claim that the United States and Venezuela together hold more than 60 percent of the world’s oil. The real number is closer to 22 percent. But like most things Donald Trump says, the truth carries very little burden on the claims that he makes. What does still matter is that he feels confident enough to say something that far from reality in front of a room filled with world leaders who know the truth because many of them govern countries whose economies depend on the very oil he is talking about.
He also spent his time at the podium spreading other dangerous misinformation when he told the assembled world leaders that real concerns were all, as he calls them, a hoax. He included the threats from the unregulated and rapid advancement of artificial intelligence that is coming from the same people responsible for, in his words, “Russia, Russia, Russia,” “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine,” climate change, and open borders. What Trump was trying to do was take serious and rapidly developing issues that governments, scientists, and even the leaders of the companies building this technology are trying to understand, and deliberately place them into the same category of “political hoaxes” he has spent years telling his supporters not to believe.
Later in the day, he joined a meeting with leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council, including countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, all of them sitting in the same region as Iran and some just across the Persian Gulf. While sitting directly beside them, Donald Trump spoke of a suspected Iranian nuclear site known as Pickaxe Mountain and said, “We may have to blow up another one.” He said it with seemingly no consideration for what another attack on Iran could mean for the region, or how directly the consequences of another escalation could affect the very countries whose leaders were sitting right next to him.
Thankfully, there was some pushback. Maybe not right in Trump’s face, but it was still said in a way that left little question about who it was for and what it was about. Later in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron took to the podium and challenged Trump’s claims about peace in Gaza. “But what credibility do we have if we continue to remain inactive in the face of Gaza? Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second. Are we simply to stand by and watch this spectacle that should shame us all?” Macron didn’t need to say Trump’s name. Everyone in that room knew exactly who and what he was talking about.
Watching all of this today reminded me of another infamous speech from that same podium. In September 2009, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was given 15 minutes to address the General Assembly and instead spoke for 96. He rambled from one subject to another, antagonized the crowd with a copy of the UN Charter, called the Security Council a “terror council,” and even demanded investigations into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. The world watched as a powerful leader attacked the very institutions he was standing in front of while he seemed to unravel right there on the world stage.
That was the part that felt especially familiar today. Donald Trump used his time in front of the General Assembly to attack the International Criminal Court, calling it an “out-of-control institution” and its officials “an evil group of people,” before calling on every country that belongs to it to withdraw. “I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately.” He stood there at the United Nations and told the countries of the world to abandon another international institution because he does not believe it should have authority over Americans. And I don’t think we should ignore what that means. Trump was not simply saying that America should not participate. He was asking the rest of the world to dismantle the institution around us, making it harder for that institution to hold anyone accountable at all.
It was just 17 months after Gaddafi gave that speech that Libya fell into civil war. Not even a year after that, his government was gone, and he was dead. His speech did not cause any of that, and I do not believe that will be America’s fate. But looking back, that speech became one of those moments when the rest of the world got to see something very clearly: a leader beginning to lose his grip on the world around him. Watching Trump today, I couldn’t help but feel like we were watching one of those moments again.
Watching Donald Trump deal with domestic issues, which admittedly a lot of the time still cause ripples throughout the rest of the world, is upsetting. But seeing him like this on the world stage, in a setting where the President of the United States is supposed to represent all of us, takes that concern to a whole new level. I think about all of the people watching from all over the world and what they must think when they see this.
I think about how the world used to see us. I have more stories than I have days from my travels and the conversations I have had with people all over the world about America and what our country used to symbolize. A few years ago, my daughter and I met a couple from Ireland while we were in Las Vegas. My maiden name is Delaney, and when they learned that my dad’s entire family traces back to Ireland, we immediately started talking about our upcoming trip there, where my family came from, and whether I might even qualify for Irish citizenship. Somewhere in that conversation, when I said that I thought I was too many generations removed to still qualify for Irish citizenship, one of them said something I have never forgotten: “At least you’re not living in a country where you have to worry about having an escape plan.”
Back then I of course agreed. Because this was the United States of America. And there was this unspoken understanding between us that America was the place you didn’t need an escape plan from. It was the place people wanted to escape to. America was where people believed they were safe. It was respected around the world, not because we were perfect, because we certainly were not, but because we were always trying to live up to what America was supposed to be. Now I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about where my family could go, having been as outspoken as I have been.
I think about that couple now, and I wonder what they would have thought watching him today, or over the past 20 months. Because this is not the country they admired that night in Las Vegas. The respect our country once held is gone. Not just from diplomats and heads of state, but from people all over the world. You can see it in the polite smiles they hold while he speaks, trying not to trigger him or cause another bad, impulsive decision. It was easy to see in the way Zelenskyy fought to keep his face neutral and not roll his eyes as Donald Trump started obsessing over his ballroom when the fate of an entire country was what they should have been talking about.
The leaders we used to call our allies have stopped fearing his every move. Now they are simply enduring him. They are waiting him out, and what once looked like concern has turned into something closer to pity. A year ago, world leaders still seemed to believe they could manage him. Today, they seem to be trying to get through the meeting without reacting to whatever absurd thing he might say next. They see a man who is visibly diminished, physically and mentally, sitting in rooms where he is ill-prepared to even follow the discussion, let alone be a voice in the decisions being made. And they have adjusted their plans accordingly, increasingly making them without him, and without the United States.
Donald Trump is not America; he is just the person representing us to the world right now. He does not get to decide what this country ultimately becomes. We do. The America that couple believed in years ago in Las Vegas is still here in millions of us who remember what this country can be and refuse to let anyone take that from us. In 41 days, we will be voting to show not just each other that we still know who we are, but also the world. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: The horse my daughter rides at the barn where she takes lessons is like a huge puppy, always ready to lick and cuddle. I’m normally sequestered writing while her sister takes her to her lesson, so I get funny pictures sent to me instead. It’s a little piece of normal in a very abnormal time, and I hold onto these moments tightly.
I know I speak for so many of us when I say that the closer we get to the midterms, the harder it is to just go about our normal daily lives knowing what is on the line. We are getting very close to that 30-day mark where both parties will be throwing everything they have at either taking back power or holding onto it. So this really is the calm before the storm, even when nothing actually feels calm.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-live-trump-addresses-2026-united-nations-general-assembly
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/22/nx-s1-5976843/trump-heads-to-u-n-looking-for-wins-after-a-rough-week
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/22/world/live-news/un-general-assembly-trump
https://newrepublic.com/post/215734/zelenskiy-trump-un-meeting-white-house-ballroom
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/22/trump-unga-speech-annihilate-iran-icc-rogue-war-crimes/
Look, I just don’t get this. The leader of powerful nation just gets up in front of a national assembly and says he’s going to wipe out another nation over an issue that I thought that assembly was set up to resolve i.e. conflicts between member states. If it was functioning properly, I thought a person who made such an outrageous statement would be arrested immediately by the United Nations security police either. charged with planning an international war crime or taken away to a secure facility where he gets the psychiatric treatment he needs but much to my amazement we just go onto the next speaker,
This is SO shocking, shameful and embarrassing for America! It is unbelievable that the Republicans in Congress can still allow this ridiculousness to pass! Aren’t they embarrassed too? As you say, Heather, the rest of the world looks on in horror.