Askold Lozynskyj
This is a rather bellicose, arrogant and one would hope anachronistic statement, especially by a world leader in the 21st century. It certainly does not reflect the mantra or purpose of the United Nations. Such sentiments may have been heard at conferences of Hitler’s Nazi Party, Mussolini’s Fascists, Stalin’s, Mao’s Communists or today Putin’s United Russia.
Yet this is precisely what American President Donald J. Trump said from the podium at the opening of the 81st UN General Assembly on September 22, 2026. His speech was peppered with lies, half-truths and a killer’s bravado. Trump intends to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic of Iran. Aside from lauding himself, he accorded praise to his own wife, the politically challenged Melania, for saving kidnapped Ukrainian and Russian children. From where have the Russian children been kidnapped no one can explain. Melania’s humanitarian efforts are merely a public relations effort to salvage her public persona. He also praised U.S. Permanent Representative Michael Walz apparently for siding with Russia more often than with Ukraine at the UN and Secretary of State Marco Rubio entrusted with the Cuban problem which Trump called a failed state and promised its demise albeit not its annihilation.
At a separate press conference Trump’s quisling Rubio tried to justify his superior’s words of annihilation. He presented the Iran regime as one of evil, invading other sovereign countries through terrorists. This was meant to justify America’s behavior. Two wrongs do not make a right. Iran’s brutality within and terrorism abroad does not justify America’s invasion of sovereign countries such as Venezuela or Iran and stealing its resources. On a smaller scale it does not justify American Immigration and Customs Enforcement killing American citizens and arresting others without any due process of law. Rubio is a notorious liar but certainly not the evil represented by his boss. Yet ambition for power and perhaps money like his boss, who has tripled his net worth in the White House, changes a person.
Frankly anyone who watched this performance had to be sad inasmuch as the United States for all intents and purposes was the premiere founder of the UN eighty-one years ago. Additionally, Trump’s speech brought international law a century and a half back.
Trump even criticized UNESCO and environmental issues. He called for the resignation of the judges of the International Criminal Court apparently not only to protect his buddies Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin who are both under ICC arrest warrants. Essentially, he called for the demise of the ICC before it issues an arrest warrant for him.
Attacking sovereign states, stealing Venezuelan oil, and killing Iranian schoolchildren are all crimes, irrespective of whether the United States has ratified the ICC Charter. But Trump’s biggest crime is conspiring with other rogue leaders to destroy the basic institutions of international law. If there was any doubt that America had gone rogue, Trump dispelled that doubt with his shameful performance.
In America Trump’s approval rating in foreign policy stands at 29% with a clear 71% of the American electorate disapproving of his foreign policy. No undecided is set forth. No matter what nonsense comes out of his mouth, even the average America who cares little about anything other than his own pocket, disapproves of Trump. Still Republican sycophants remain.
On October 12, 1960 Soviet strongman Nikita Khruschev banged his shoe at the UN General Assembly shouting, “We will bury you.” No one at that time could have imagined a similar demonstration at the UN by an American leader. Yet in 2026 not only America but the entire civilized world should have seen this coming.
Donald J. Trump is manifestly unhinged. He has stated on more than one occasion that the only factor that impacts him is his own morality. Unfortunately, that is neither a check nor a balance. In fact, it has nothing to do with morals. The U.S. Constitution, America’s laws, international rules and covenants have no meaning. The law of the jungle and survival of the fittest prevails. He is a convicted American felon. He is clearly going down and internationally taking America and all of its positive work with him.
It will take decades to restore the world’s confidence in America. I suggest that no matter how ill-informed and naive they may be, the American people are basically good people. I pray that the global community recognizes America’s affliction and finds sympathy and understanding without, however, succumbing to this aberration.
September 23, 2026
