U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday was all praise for Pakistan during his address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), saying the country is “great” and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is a “terrific” man.
“Pakistan is a great country. P.M. Shehbaz Sharif, a terrific man,” he said, recalling Sharif had called to thank him for America’s role in helping Pakistan “something that was very important.” He said Sharif had told him his intervention had helped end the war between Pakistan and India in May 2025, saving 30 million lives. He claimed this marked eight wars that he had “settled.”
Iran war
During his address, Trump reiterated claims the Iran conflict had prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and warned he could “annihilate” the country if it doesn’t agree to a deal to end the war. Maintaining his administration would reach a peace deal after U.S. midterm elections in November, he urged the world to join America in isolating Iran economically to force it to the negotiating table.
“I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” he said. “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? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election.”
A.I. threat
The U.S. president also rejected calls for international supervision of artificial intelligence, calling them a “globalist scheme” to control the new technology. He said the U.S. government would replace the term “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence” in its formal communications, expressing the hope the rest of the world would do the same. “It sounds much better” and “it’s much more accurate,” he said.
Dismissing warnings from A.I. safety advocates, he compared them to warnings about climate change—despite overwhelming consensus about the human impact on the climate by the scientific community. “Every major new technology brings challenges, and super intelligence is no exception,” he said. “The very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming … are now saying that A.I. is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.”
Global criticism
Turning to other states, Trump labeled Mexico “the epicenter of cartel violence,” and urged its government to “reclaim control of its soil.” He said his administration was pursuing “a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba.” Describing it as a “failed” state, he said it “will fall.”
He also used the U.N. platform to renewed criticism of the global body, highlighting efforts to cut its bureaucracy. He similarly criticized international bodies that could serve as a check on U.S. power, especially the International Criminal Court, declaring that U.S. military personnel would not be subject to its authority. “We will never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us,” he said.