President Donald Trump touted his peace record again at the newly dubbed President Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.
On Dec. 4, Trump hosted a peace agreement ceremony between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, heaping praise on the building he called “brand-new,” though it was built over a decade ago.
“Today we’re succeeding where so many others have failed,” he said. “This has become the eighth war that we’ve ended in less than one year. Such an exciting thing to do.”
Trump has made similar claims several times throughout this presidency. In August, ahead of a White House visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders at the White House, Trump said on Truth Social he settled six wars in six months. In September, when speaking with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he said his administration had solved seven wars.
Now, after the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Trump has bumped it up to eight wars. But the wars he is referring to aren’t all during this term, nor do all parties give the U.S. credit in brokering the deals. Here is the rundown:
What 8 wars is Trump referring to?
Since Trump took office in January, the United States has been involved in six ceasefires or peace agreements, though not all parties involved credit the U.S. for the agreements. Those include:
Trump’s eight wars figure also refers to two conflicts mostly based in his first term, the White House previously told USA TODAY.
That includes Ethiopia and Egypt, where there has been neither a war nor a peace agreement between the countries, according to Axios. Trump dealt with a dispute between the two countries in his first term as they were feuding over a huge hydropower dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Egypt and Sudan have expressed concern that water flow to their part of the Nile River would be impacted, USA TODAY previously reported. Trump mentioned the countries in a July meeting with the NATO Secretary General where he rattled off other examples of settling wars.
“We worked on Egypt with a next-door neighbor who is a good neighbor,” he said. “They’re friends of mine, but they happened to build a dam, which closed up water going into a thing called the Nile. I think if I’m Egypt, I want to have water in the Nile and we’re working on that.”
The other conflict cited by the White House is Serbia and Kosovo. In September 2020, Trump announced Serbia and Kosovo agreed to economic normalization. But Reuters reported the tense relations persist five years later. Serbia considers Kosovo part of its territory, long after Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Kosovo’s president in July said Trump prevented further escalation, but the Serbian president denied that escalation was imminent, according to Reuters. No peace deal has been signed.
Contributing: Reuters; USA TODAY’s Joey Garrison, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, Bart Jansen, Zac Anderson, Francesca Chambers, Josh Meyer, Kim Hjelmgaard
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: President Trump says he has ended 8 wars. What is he referring to?
Reporting by Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
