Trump Tells UN: 'To the Victor Belong the Spoils' on Venezuela Oil, Warns Iran to Deal or Be 'Annihilated'

President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, in a speech that mixed a victory lap over Venezuela with a blunt ultimatum for Iran and a newly signed military pact on Greenland.

The Venezuela Line

Trump described Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military action that reached Caracas on January 3, 2026, and ended with the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, who is now in federal detention in New York awaiting trial, according to Breitbart. Maduro denies the charges against him, CNN reported.

Trump told the assembly that hundreds of political prisoners have since been freed and that the U.S. signed a deal last month covering 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, according to Breitbart and NPR. "When you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60% of the oil in the world," Trump said, according to NPR. "To the victor belong the spoils. You've all heard that."

NPR's coverage flagged that the statement "contradicts decades of U.S. rhetoric" against explicitly tying military intervention to resource acquisition, and called it a contrast with UN principles. NPR characterized the sentence as a departure from typical diplomatic language on this specific point. Trump's team casts the arrangement as a negotiated economic deal with Venezuela's interim government, not a seizure.

That interim government is led by Delcy Rodríguez, who initially criticized Maduro's arrest but has since struck the oil agreement with Washington, CNN reported. Rodríguez addressed the General Assembly this week, the first Venezuelan head of state to do so since 2018, according to AS/COA.

Not everyone in Venezuela is happy about it. CNN spoke with protesters in Caracas, including Nuris Medina, who said she "completely disagree[s] with the UN welcoming that illegitimate woman in New York." Another protester, Margot Monasterios, said Venezuelans are "grateful" Maduro is gone but noted his inner circle remains in power: "you left us with the 40 thieves." Rafael Azuaje told CNN Rodríguez "was not elected by the will of the people" and accused the deal of "taking away all the mineral wealth, while the people are actually even worse off." Those are the protesters' claims, not independently verified assessments of the deal's terms.

Trump also credited the operation with a steep drop in cartel violence, claiming cartel activity is down 97% since he designated groups like the ones operating in the region as foreign terrorist organizations, according to Breitbart. That figure comes from Trump himself; no independent agency confirmation was cited in the available reporting.

Iran: Deal or 'Hell'

On Iran, Trump told the chamber he faces a choice: strike a deal after November's midterm elections or "annihilate the Islamic Republic," according to CNN and El País. "Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?" he asked, per El País.

El País noted the war, which began earlier this year, is approaching its seventh month with the recent entry of Yemen's Houthis suggesting escalation rather than resolution. The administration's timeline for ending the conflict has already slipped from days to weeks to months. Trump said later Tuesday that U.S. officials held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation, according to CNN and NPR.

Greenland, Cuba, and the ICC

Trump signed what Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a deal that "can last forever" with Denmark and Greenland, according to BNN Bloomberg. The agreement lets the U.S. expand its Pituffik Space Base and establish new "defense areas" at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with no end date, per documents released by the Danish government and cited by BNN Bloomberg. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called the island a "steadfast friend to the United States." The tone marks a shift from less than a year ago, when Trump said the U.S. would act on Greenland "whether they like it or not," BNN Bloomberg noted.

Trump also said Cuba's communist government "will fall," prompting the Cuban delegation to walk out of the chamber, CNN reported. He called the island "an absolutely failed state," according to the Guardian.

Trump called on member states to abandon the International Criminal Court entirely, labeling it a "rogue institution," as reported by NPR and El País. El País noted the administration is reportedly preparing sanctions aimed at financially constraining the court, though no formal action was confirmed in Tuesday's proceedings.

What's Still Unresolved

Whether Iran responds to the post-midterm deadline, whether Venezuela's oil arrangement holds up as Rodríguez's government consolidates power, and what happens to the ICC sanctions reportedly under preparation all remain open questions heading into the fall. Zelensky separately told reporters he's ready for a trilateral meeting with Russia and the U.S., though Trump gave no specifics on timing, according to CNN.