During a White House visit from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump expanded on his oft-repeated boast about ending multiple wars and made an even bolder assertion: that no president had solved even one war before him.
Trump said Oct. 17 that people tell him, “‘Sir, if you solve one more, you’re going to be known as a peacekeeper.’ So to the best of my knowledge, we’ve never had a president that solved one war, not one war. (George W.) Bush started a war (in Iraq). A lot of them start wars, but they don’t solve the wars. They don’t settle them, and especially when they’re not, when they have nothing to do with us.”
Trump is ignoring at least two instances of presidents personally overseeing negotiations that ended other countries’ wars, plus several others in which presidents’ designated diplomats successfully reached peace agreements following negotiations.
“Like a lot of Trump’s statements, it massively exaggerates what he’s done, while ignoring any history of what other presidents have done,” said David Silbey, a Cornell University military historian.
For our analysis, we did not count wars that the United States participated in militarily and won, such as World War II. Trump said he was focusing on wars that “have nothing to do with us,” and none of the eight wars he claims to have ended have primarily involved the U.S. as a combatant.
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White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told PolitiFact that Trump’s “direct involvement in major conflicts, leveraging tools from America’s military might to our superior consumer market, has brought peace to decades-long wars around the world in a fashion unlike any of his predecessors.”
Wars settled by U.S. presidents
In this 1904 file photo, Theodore Roosevelt campaigns for the presidency in 1904. Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for negotiating peace in the 1904-5 war between Russia and Japan. (AP)
Japan became the first modern Asian power to defeat a European power in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt helped mediate a settlement at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1905. Roosevelt was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the war.
President Jimmy Carter, center, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat before signing a peace treaty at the White House on March 26, 1979. (AP)
By the time President Jimmy Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the White House to sign the Camp David Accords on Sept. 17, 1978, Israel and Egypt had been at war for three decades, alternating between periods of hot and cold war. The agreement was the fruit of negotiations conducted at the presidential retreat, Camp David. Sadat and Begin won the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.
Wars settled by U.S. diplomats on a president’s watch
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, center, is flanked by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, left, and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as they sign an accord Nov. 10, 1995, in Dayton, Ohio. (AP)
The Bosnian War
On Nov. 21, 1995, the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia reached an agreement for peace in Dayton, Ohio, ending the Bosnian War, which began in 1992. The primary U.S. officials involved in the negotiations over the Dayton Accords were veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke and Secretary of State Warren Christopher, along with leaders from Europe and Russia. The U.S. president at the time was Bill Clinton.
Former President Bill Clinton and, from left, former Sen. George Mitchell, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 17, 2023. (AP)
Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’
The sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics — known as “the Troubles” — in the United Kingdom-administered Northern Ireland persisted for roughly three decades before the 1998 Good Friday Agreementalso known as the Belfast Agreement. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, spearheaded it, and it followed shuttle diplomacy — when an intermediary carries out a negotiation by traveling back and forth between the disputing parties — between Washington and Belfast. Clinton was also the president at the time.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is among the witnesses of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium on Jan. 9, 2005. (AP)
Civil war in Sudan
Fighting between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, based in southern Sudan, ended in 2005 with the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement, thanks to negotiations overseen by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. George W. Bush was president at the time of the 2005 agreement. In 2011, a referendum led to the creation of a new country, South Sudan.
What has Trump previously said about settling multiple wars?
Trump has often repeated the exaggerated claim that he’s ended six, seven or eight wars.
Trump had a hand in ceasefires that recently eased conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. But these were mostly incremental accords without a strong likelihood of long-term peace. Some leaders also dispute the extent of Trump’s role.
The U.S. was involved in a temporary peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, but violence in the region has continued, with hundreds of civilians killed since the deal’s June signing. After Trump helped broker a deal between Cambodia and Thailand, the countries accused each other of ceasefire violations.
A long-running standoff between Egypt and Ethiopia over an Ethiopian dam on the Nile River remains unresolved. In the case of Kosovo and Serbia, there is little evidence a potential war was brewing.
Most recently, Trump has made notable progress by securing an agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war. The agreement involves multiple stages, so it will take time to see if peace holds.
For weeks, Trump has cited his diplomatic activity as being worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements,” Trump said during a Sept. 23 speech at the United Nations.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado with the prize Oct. 10 for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”
Our ruling
Trump said, “We’ve never had a president that solved one war, not one war.”
At least two U.S. presidents — Roosevelt and Carter — personally conducted negotiations that led to peace agreements, both of which resulted in Nobel Prizes for some of the participants.
Several other presidents saw peace agreements hammered out on their watch by officials they appointed.
We rate the statement Pants on Fire!
Staff Writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.
