When Senior members of his team, including secretary of state Rex Tillerson, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, National Security Adviser HR McMaster and treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, looked on, Trump took a tough line on North Korea and Iran, as had been previewed by aides.

He called the two countries, whose representatives sat stone-faced, “rogue nations” and used phrases such as “wicked few” and “band of criminals” for their leaders, as he sought to position the US as any ally of their people who, he said, were being oppressed and exploited by their rulers.

While he had thanked China and Russia for backing the new sanctions, he called on them to do more. “It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime (China is North Korea’s top trading partner), but would arm, supply and financially support a country that imperils the world,” he said.

Turning to Iran, Trump said the UN-backed deal capping its nuclear weapons programme was “an embarrassment” and it was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the US has ever entered into”. He added: “I don’t think you’ve heard the end of it.”

While Trump praised and thanked the UN Security Council for new sanctions imposed on Pyongyang, he said the US will be ready to defend itself if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he mocked as “Rocket Man”, continued to threaten the US and its allies.

“We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said, going on to call Kim by the nickname he began using recently and which, according to news outlets, he personally insisted on retaining in the speech. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”

Pivoting to counter-terrorism, Trump used the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism”, which has been found problematic by critics who argue it unfairly tars the entire community. “We will stop radical Islamic terrorism because we cannot allow it to tear up our nation and indeed to tear up the entire world,” he said.