Trump Heads to UN Amid Iran War, AI Anxiety and Questions Over World Body's Future

President Donald Trump is set to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, arriving at a moment of strain for both the global order and his own presidency.

The US economy and world markets have been unsettled by his decision to launch a war against Iran. Concern is mounting over the social consequences of artificial intelligence. And the UN's own future is in question as Washington scales back its financial backing for the organisation.

After the speech, the White House expects Trump to hold talks with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez. He will also sit down with leaders and senior officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — to discuss the course of the Iran war and rising alarm over recent attacks on Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed rebels.

The visit comes as Trump's foreign policy, above all the decision to go to war with Iran, weighs on Republican hopes of holding both chambers of Congress in the coming midterm elections. Administration officials nonetheless signalled that Trump will argue in his address that the world is better off under his leadership.

"We expect the president will highlight how he has and his administration have confronted complex problems head-on around the world," said Ambassador Mike Waltz, Trump's chief envoy to the UN.

Waltz also hinted that Trump may return to his long-standing criticism of the UN, which he has called ineffective on war and peace, accused of perpetuating a "con job" over global warming, and blamed for promoting migrant "invasion" into Europe.

In last year's address, Trump said the US had "demolished" Iran's nuclear capabilities after ordering the June 2025 bombardment of three key sites. He now returns close to the seven-month mark of a new war with Iran that he says is needed to counter a nuclear threat.

The conflict has grown more complex even though US and Israeli strikes have killed much of Iran's top leadership and destroyed its air force and navy, while a US blockade of Iranian oil has left Tehran's economy in ruins.

Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have improved in recent weeks as the US Navy helps guide commercial vessels through the narrow waterway, but remain well below pre-war levels. Brent crude is still hovering around $100 a barrel, against roughly $70 before the war began.

Energy markets remain on edge. Saudi Arabia shut a key pipeline this month that had served as a relief valve for oil blocked in the Gulf, after the pipeline was attacked by Iran-backed militants in Iraq. Territorial advances by Yemen-based Houthi rebels, another Iranian-backed group, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait have made that Red Sea shipping lane treacherous for oil carriers.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, said on Monday that Qatar and other mediators are trying to bridge a "deep deficit of trust" between Washington and Tehran and bring them back to talks.

"What we're trying to say is that, 'Listen, this will end at the negotiating table,'" al-Ansari said at the Concordia Annual Summit, a global affairs forum held during the UN's high-level week. "Either we sign a deal now or sign a deal 10 months away. The only difference is the number of dead and destruction that we see."

At last year's General Assembly, Trump presented himself as a peacemaker and said "everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize" for his administration's mediation in several conflicts.

This year, his administration is due to sign an agreement on the sidelines of the gathering with Danish and Greenlandic leaders setting out a path for expanding the US military's footprint on Greenland. The deal, announced last week, followed repeated Trump threats to "take over" Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark, by force if necessary. Under the agreement, Greenland remains Danish territory.

"I'm looking forward to the meeting tomorrow. I think we have reached a good agreement," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 Denmark.

Trump may also address Russia's continuing war against Ukraine, a conflict he predicted during his 2024 campaign would be settled on day one of his second term. He has often voiced frustration with the fighting, and has made clear his patience is tested by Ukraine's strikes on Russian diesel refineries — which have added to oil market volatility — and Russia's targeting of Ukraine's energy grid.

Trump said last week that he had secured agreement from both sides not to target each other's energy infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was willing to go along if Russia abided by it. Russia said it could only accept the proposal if Western energy sanctions on Moscow were lifted first. Strikes on refineries and other energy infrastructure have continued.

"Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine," Trump posted on social media on Monday, adding: "This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended."

The president is due to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Burnham, the centre-left Labour leader who became prime minister in July. With high oil prices weighing on the British economy, Burnham may be keen 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 Middle East to help Saudi Arabia repel Houthi attacks, with the aircraft refuelling Saudi planes on "defensive" missions.

Trump's meeting with Takaichi comes as he prepares to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington later this week for a state visit. Japan-China ties, long complicated, grew more fraught after Takaichi said last year that Japan's military could intervene if China took action against Taiwan, a semi-autonomous island democracy Beijing considers its own territory. The tensions have spilled into the two countries' economic relationship.

Trump's engagement with Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim president, will be the first meeting between the two since Trump in January ordered a US military operation to capture former President Nicolás Maduro and bring him to New York to face federal narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges.