President Donald Trump has frequently boasted about ending or preventing several wars when listing off the accomplishments of his second term, but according to a new analysis from the Washington Post, his focus on creating "flashy headlines" is causing these deals to fall apart.
The piece, written by Post columnist and veteran foreign correspondent Keith B. Richburg, highlighted a few notable conflicts Trump has claimed to have quelled via ceasefire agreements, including disputes between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Thailand and Cambodia, and Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
Trump hosted a meeting between the leaders of Rwanda and the DRC, claiming "a new year of harmony and cooperation" had begun. However, as Richburg explained, "fighting raged on" between the two nations, with a Rwandan militia seizing the Congolese town of Uvira just days after the summit in Washington, D.C.
In October, Trump hosted a similar ceasefire signing event between leaders of Thailand and Cambodia, but just a few months later, in early December, fighting along the border between the two nations broke out. So far, 11 Thai troops and at least 11 Cambodian civilians have been killed as the two sides trade artillery fire, with over half a million displaced. Trump claimed that a ceasefire had been reached after calling the prime ministers of each country, but the two leaders said this was not true.
One of Trump's most heavily touted accomplishments of his second term was a peace plan aimed at ending the war in Gaza. Despite much hype, the disarmament of Hamas and the appointment of a Gaza peace board have failed to materialize, and Hamas has continued to assert its control in the area.
"The setbacks show that in the complicated business of peacemaking, signing a ceasefire deal before the cameras is usually just the beginning," Richburg wrote. "Changing the realities on the ground — and getting combatants to lay down their weapons — requires a more sustained level of follow-through and commitment."
The issues at play in these conflicts, Richburg explained, are deeply complex and steeped in decades of disputes. Fixing them requires long-term commitments to diplomacy, not Trump's favored tactic of deadlines and media-friendly ceasefire meetings.
"In all these conflicts, enmities run deep, and are passed on through generations," Richburg wrote. "They are not easily undone by handshakes in Washington, Kuala Lumpur or Cairo. And they defy quick and easy solutions. Trump fancies himself a peacemaker and a dealmaker. But solving historically complex conflicts is not like making a real estate deal, where everyone can walk away satisfied. Solving a war takes time, patient diplomacy and follow through. Artificial deadlines are meaningless."