- calendar_today August 8, 2025
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President Donald Trump is once again turning his attention to his foreign policy record, and he’s going all in on his peace initiatives in his second term, announcing that he has already ended six wars.
He made the claim Monday at the White House while meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, telling reporters that he is also close to ending the war in Ukraine.
“I’ve done six wars — I’ve ended six wars,” Trump said. “Look, India-Pakistan, we’re talking about big places. You just take a look at some of these wars. You go to Africa and take a look at them.”
The White House later released a statement on the “President of Peace” in Trump, highlighting agreements and initiatives between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo. It also mentioned the Abraham Accords of his first term, in which Israel and several Arab states normalized ties.
Ceasefires, Not Peace Deals
While Trump celebrates these moves, analysts say they are tenuous ceasefires and not permanent peace accords. He, for instance, pointed to Israel and Iran, saying, “We got them to a peace deal after 12 days of them shooting rockets and us shooting missiles.”
But there is no peace deal. Tensions still exist over Iran’s nuclear program and the decades of animosity do not appear to be going anywhere.
Trump was also unsuccessful in reaching a deal between Israel and Hamas and his outreach to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during his first term left Pyongyang with more nuclear weapons than it had before.
The White House boasted one of Trump’s more recent successes was a declaration between Armenia and Azerbaijan signed in the White House earlier this month. The agreement, as well as a similar pact with Turkey, commits both sides to recognizing borders and renouncing violence and establishing what the White House is calling the “Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity.” It is a U.S.-controlled transportation corridor.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev described it as “a miracle,” though many experts have pointed to more intractable issues on which the constitutional status of the area and deeper territorial questions remain outstanding.
In Southeast Asia, Trump used the threat of trade sanctions to stop a border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand that left 38 people dead. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, also played a role, but Cambodia’s Hun Manet, the son of Prime Minister Hun Sen, has given direct credit to Trump and even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
India and Pakistan have both nuclear weapons and Trump has taken credit for calming tensions over a border dispute in May, but while Islamabad has praised Washington’s involvement, New Delhi has been dismissive. As such, the truce still leaves Kashmir unresolved, and it is unclear how long it will last.
Africa, Kosovo
Trump has also tried to point to his peace initiatives in Africa, especially an accord between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to disarm militias and tamp down border tensions. But the agreement was rejected by the M23 rebel group at the center of the fighting. Many analysts say the U.S. is as interested in these negotiations because it sees an opportunity to supplant China for control of African mineral wealth.
Trump’s claim that Egypt and Ethiopia have come to a deal is over their long-running dispute over a Nile dam project. While Trump has weighed in and has pushed for a compromise, no binding agreement is in place. In a similar vein, the administration has emphasized an earlier effort between Serbia and Kosovo to take steps toward normalizing economic relations, but the two do not have full diplomatic relations, and the EU has led most recent negotiations.
Analysts have said Trump has weakened his ability to foster lasting peace by dismantling parts of the State Department and cutting budgets at the U.S. Agency for International Development. At the same time, though, they have also pointed out that his unconventional approaches, including blunt talk and branding his personal involvement, have at times produced concrete short-term results.
Former assistant secretary of defense Celeste Wallander, now with the Center for a New American Security, said Trump’s quiet diplomacy between India and Pakistan was one area that was more effective than his bombastic pronouncements. “The ones that were helpful … were conducted in a professional way, quietly, diplomatically … finding common ground between the parties,” she said.
Trump is now pushing peace talks in Ukraine as he seeks to negotiate an end to the war. It is unclear if his interventions and peace drive will be able to produce enduring results or if his legacy will be more of the same big talk, as we have seen with his other claims in his first term.




