Greenland signing, Xi visit, Zelensky meeting follow Trump’s UN address
President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in New York, defending his foreign-policy record in remarks covered by the Wall Street Journal. Casting himself as a man of action, Trump told the gathering: “While others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them.”
Trump framed his record as one of “tough but necessary choices,” and said he had used U.S. power “to make America the most powerful country in the world.” Despite continuing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump argued his wielding of military force and diplomatic pressure had delivered for Americans.
In his remarks, Trump renewed his threats against Iran. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?” Trump asked, before adding that he still expected Tehran to make a deal after the November midterm elections. The nearly seven-month war with Iran has led Tehran to target the energy infrastructure of Middle Eastern nations and to hamper trade in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Journal.
That energy disruption has contributed to rising gas and oil prices, a development the Journal reported has hurt Republicans’ political standing ahead of the midterms. U.S. and Iranian officials signaled Tuesday that they were open to renewed negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to Fox News, said Trump was open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the U.N. gathering. “The president is open to a meeting with him or anybody,” Rubio said. “Now, whether something productive will come out of it, it’s harder to tell because the ultimate decision maker in Iran is the supreme leader.”
After stepping away from the lectern, Trump faced a packed schedule of meetings that the Journal said would lay bare the unfinished business of his interventions. On Tuesday, Trump was scheduled to sign an agreement giving the U.S. a greater military and business presence in Greenland, the large Arctic island within Denmark’s kingdom. The accord followed nearly two years of diplomatic pressure and the occasional threat that had roiled relations with trans-Atlantic allies.
Trump was also set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Gulf leaders. His repeated attempts at mediation have failed to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Journal reported.
Trump’s day in New York was scheduled to include a meeting with interim Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez. Trump was expected to tout their working relationship, arguing the arrangement stabilizes Venezuela and gives the U.S. access to the country’s vast oil reserves — a posture the Journal reported comes even as Trump has slow-walked a democratic transition. Rodríguez is the former right-hand woman of Nicolás Maduro, who the Journal reported was ousted in a dramatic U.S. military operation earlier this year. Earlier, Trump announced a deal in which the Pentagon will take a stake in Venezuela’s oil, a move the U.S. president has said will lower gas prices for Americans.
On Wednesday, the Board of Peace — a body Trump founded to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza — was scheduled to meet and outline the progress it has made since the war between Israel and Hamas ended.
Another test awaited Trump on Wednesday, when he was to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a three-day state visit. Once hawkish toward the world’s second-largest economy, Trump now seeks friendlier relations with Beijing and to avoid stiff economic and military competition, U.S. officials told the Journal. The summit, which the Journal characterized as likely to focus more on optics than substance, was likely to see Trump and Xi discuss artificial intelligence, rare earths, and Taiwan.
Earlier in the week, the White House removed CNN from a planned assignment covering Trump’s trip to New York after the president banned the cable news network and two other outlets from the White House. Major television networks had suspended some of their coverage of Trump in protest. When a CNN reporter tried to ask Trump a question at the U.N. on Tuesday, the president responded: “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”