How many wars has President Trump really ended?

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As President Donald Trump tries to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, he has been highlighting his track record in peace negotiations since starting his second term in office. Speaking at the White House on 18 August, where he was pressed by European leaders to push for a ceasefire, he claimed: “I’ve ended six wars… all of these deals I made without even the mention of the word ‘ceasefire’.” The following day the number he cited had risen to “seven wars”. The Trump administration says a Nobel Peace Prize is “well past time” for the “peacemaker-in-chief”, and has listed the “wars” he has supposedly ended. Some lasted just days – although they were the result of long-standing tensions – and it is unclear whether some of the peace deals will last. Trump also used the word “ceasefire” a number of times when talking about them on his Truth Social platform. BBC Verify has taken a closer look at these conflicts and how much credit the president can take for ending them.

Israel and Iran

The 12-day conflict began when Israel hit targets in Iran on 13 June. Trump confirmed that he had been informed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the strikes. The US carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites – a move widely seen as bringing the conflict towards a swift close. On 23 June, Trump posted: “Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World.” After the hostilities ended, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted his country had secured a “decisive victory” and did not mention a ceasefire. Israel has since suggested it could strike Iran again to counter new threats. “There is no agreement on a permanent peace or on how to monitor Iran’s nuclear programme going forward,” argues Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “So what we have is more of a de facto ceasefire than an end to war, but I’d give him some credit, as the weakening of Iran by Israel – with US help – has been strategically significant.”

AFP via Getty Images Targets in Iran and Israel were hit during 12 days of conflict

Pakistan and India

Tensions between these two nuclear-armed countries have existed for years, but in May hostilities broke out following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. After four days of strikes, Trump posted that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE”. He said this was the result of “a long night of talks mediated by the United States”. Kashmir: Why India and Pakistan fight over it Pakistan thanked Trump and later recommended him for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his “decisive diplomatic intervention”. India, however, played down talk of US involvement: “The talks regarding cessation of military action were held directly between India and Pakistan under the existing channels established between both militaries,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Long-standing hostilities between these two countries flared up after the M23 rebel group seized mineral-rich territory in eastern DR Congo earlier in the year. In June, the two countries signed a peace agreement in Washington aimed at ending decades of conflict. Trump said it would help increase trade between them and the US. The text called for “respect for the ceasefire” agreed between Rwanda and DRC in August 2024.

Getty M23 rebels have been linked to Rwanda

Since the latest deal, both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire and the M23 rebels – which the UK and US have linked to Rwanda – have threatened to walk away from peace talks. In July, the rebel group killed at least 140 people, including women and children, in eastern DR Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. What’s the fighting in DR Congo all about?

DR Congo rebels killed 140 civilians despite peace process, rights group says “There’s still fighting between Congo and Rwanda – so that ceasefire has never really held,” says Margaret MacMillan, a professor of history who taught at the University of Oxford.

Thailand and Cambodia

On 26 July, Trump posted on Truth Social saying: “I am calling the Acting Prime Minister of Thailand, right now, to likewise request a Ceasefire, and END to the War, which is currently raging.” A couple of days later, the two countries agreed to an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” after less than a week of fighting at the border. Malaysia held the peace talks, but President Trump threatened to stop separate negotiations on reducing US tariffs (taxes on imports) unless Thailand and Cambodia stopped fighting. Both are heavily dependent on exports to the US. On 7 August, Thailand and Cambodia reached an agreement aimed at reducing tensions along their shared border.

Armenia and Azerbaijan

The leaders of both countries said Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in securing a peace deal, which was announced at the White House on 8 August. “I think he gets good credit here – the Oval Office signing ceremony may have pushed the parties to peace,” says Mr O’Hanlon. In March, the two governments had said they were ready to end their nearly 40-year conflict centred on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh: Conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenians explained The most recent, serious outbreak of fighting was in September 2023 when Azerbaijan seized the enclave (where many ethnic Armenians lived).

Getty In August Trump hosted the Azerbaijani president and Armenian prime minister at the White House

Egypt and Ethiopia

There was no “war” here for the president to end, but there have long been tensions over a dam on the River Nile. Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was completed this summer with Egypt arguing that the water it gets from the Nile could be affected. After 12 years of disagreement, Egypt’s foreign minister said on 29 June that talks with Ethiopia had ground to a halt. Trump said: “If I were Egypt, I’d want the water in the Nile.” He promised that the US was going to resolve the issue very quickly. Egypt welcomed Trump’s words, but Ethiopian officials said they risked inflaming tensions. No formal deal has been reached between Egypt and Ethiopia to resolve their differences.

Serbia and Kosovo

On 27 June, Trump claimed to have prevented an outbreak of hostilities between them, saying: “Serbia, Kosovo was going to go at it, going to be a big war. I said you go at it, there’s no trade with the United States. They said, well, maybe we won’t go at it.” The two countries have long been in dispute – a legacy of the Balkan wars of the 1990s – with tensions rising in recent years. “Serbia and Kosovo haven’t been fighting or firing at each other, so it’s not a war to end,” Prof MacMillan told us. The White House pointed us towards Trump’s diplomatic efforts in his first term. The two countries signed economic normalisation agreements in the Oval Office with the president in 2020, but they were not at war at the time.

President Trump often says that he has resolved multiple wars since taking office in January and that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. “I’m averaging about a war a month,” Mr. Trump said in July in Turnberry, Scotland.

On Monday at the White House, during talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine aimed at moving toward a peace deal with Russia, he referred to “six wars that I’ve settled.” On Tuesday, in an interview on “Fox and Friends,” he said he had “solved seven wars,” though he did not specify which one he had added.

“I really want to get to heaven,” Mr. Trump said in the interview, explaining his motivation for playing peacemaker, though he joked that he knew he was “on the bottom of the totem pole.”

Every U.S. president has world conflicts land on his desk, and Mr. Trump has used the power of his office, including the threat of economic penalties, to intervene in several this year, leading to a stop in fighting. In some cases, warring parties have credited him with advancing peace or calming hostilities. In others, his role is disputed or less clear — or fighting has resumed.

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President Donald Trump is not just trying to end the vicious war in Ukraine.

He’s claiming he’s already ended almost one war for each month of his second term — spanning the Middle East; Africa; and Central, South and Southeast Asia.

“I’ve done six wars — I’ve ended six wars,” Trump said in his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on Monday. “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 proclaimed in a statement this month that “President Trump is the President of Peace,” listing a total of seven claimed bilateral agreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan; Cambodia and Thailand; Israel and Iran; India and Pakistan; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Egypt and Ethiopia; and Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the Abraham Accords, a normalization pact signed in Trump’s first term between Israel and some Arab states.

On Tuesday, the president told “Fox and Friends” that “we ended seven wars.”

Some of this is classic Trumpian hyperbole. And the president’s team is scanning the globe looking for fires to extinguish to claim quick wins for his transparent campaign for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump hasn’t suddenly reinvented American foreign policy. Every administration works to halt wars and to advance US interests. Most don’t take constant victory laps — indeed, such triumphalism can often destroy quiet diplomacy.

Yet Trump has saved lives. In some cases, he’s used presidential power in novel ways to stop sudden conflicts from escalating into full-scale wars.

But his success raises new questions that also apply to Ukraine. Is Trump in it for the long haul or just for deals he can hype, much as he licensed products as a businessman and stamped his name on them?

And will Trump’s evisceration of the US Agency for International Development and downsizing of the State Department deprive him of the tools the US needs to turn breakthroughs into lasting peace agreements that solve underlying causes of wars?

US President Donald Trump speaks during a multilateral meeting with European leaders in the East Room of the White House on Monday. Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The blind spots in Trump’s peacemaking record

Trump kept insisting Monday — as he tried finesse his adoption of Russia’s opposition to an immediate Ukraine ceasefire — that he was more interested in final deals.

Ironically however, some of his “six wars” deals are closer to ceasefires than peace agreements that permanently end generational disputes. And in the case of Iran and Israel, Trump’s claims to have made peace after their 12-day conflict are complicated by US involvement in strikes against Tehran’s nuclear program. While an informal truce is in place, there’s no sign a slow-boiling state of war involving all three nations since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 will end.

Trump is also conveniently forgetting his failed attempt to end the war between Israel and Hamas. And global outrage over reports of widespread starvation in Gaza and the president’s staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could thwart his hopes for a Nobel Prize — whatever happens with Ukraine.

Palestinians gather at a food distribution center in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Monday. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

His record is also blotted by the failure of his first-term peace efforts with North Korea. Leader Kim Jong Un now has more nuclear weapons than before Trump offered him fruitless, photo-op summits.

Some of Trump’s biggest successes have been behind the scenes.

“I’m struck by the fact that the ones that were helpful, especially India-Pakistan, were conducted in a professional way, quietly, diplomatically … laying the ground and finding common ground between the parties,” said Celeste Wallander, a former assistant secretary of defense who is now with the Center for a New American Security.

The most recent triumph was a joint peace declaration signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan on their long-running conflict in the Caucasus.

The agreement, inked at a lavish White House ceremony, commits the two former Soviet republics to recognizing each other’s borders and to renouncing violence against the other. But complex negotiations loom on knotty constitutional and territorial issues before a full peace agreement.

This deal is notable for two things — the way foreign states flatter Trump to get what they want, and an imperialistic streak in much of his peacemaking. The rivals, for instance, agreed to open a transportation corridor to which the US will have full development rights and to call it the “Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity.”

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, left, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Trump sign a peace agreement during a ceremony at the White House on August 8. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/File

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev declared, “President Trump, in six months, did a miracle.”

This is smart deal for the US as it counters the influence of rival powers Russia and Iran in the region. But it will need Trump’s constant attention. “Wishes and verbal declarations are not enough,” two former US ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Robert Cekuta and Richard Morningstar, wrote in a recent Atlantic Council commentary. They called on Trump to deploy officials from the State Department, the Commerce Department and other agencies to lock in the agreement.

Another of Trump’s recent triumphs came in Southeast Asia, where he threatened to shelve trade deals with both Thailand and Cambodia to halt a border war last month that killed at least 38 people. The leverage pressed home in calls to leaders of each country was effective, and it might not have occurred to another president. But Trump didn’t work alone. The agreement was brokered by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knew the drill, however. He nominated Trump for the Nobel Prize for “extraordinary statesmanship.”

Pakistan took a similar step, as part of a successful diplomatic offensive to win over Trump and to disadvantage its nuclear-armed rival India after the president intervened in a border clash in May. But the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an erstwhile Trump buddy, dismissed Washington’s claims of a pivotal role. And other states, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Britain, were also involved. Trump’s claims to have ended a war are selective. The agreement is fragile and doesn’t solve the territorial dispute that sparked the fighting — over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which has caused three full-scale wars.

An Indian police officer stands outside a house that was damaged by overnight Pakistani artillery shelling in Jammu, India-administered Kashmir, on May 10. Rakesh Bakshi/AFP/Getty Images

Trump has proclaimed a “glorious triumph for the cause of peace” in a deal brokered between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This contains important first steps on recognizing borders, renouncing war and disarming militia groups. However, no one expects the conflict to end soon, since the main Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group has rejected the agreement. Some analysts see the initiative, also brokered by Qatar, as a US attempt to secure mineral rights as part of an African “great game” against China.

Trump’s claim to have brokered peace between Egypt and Ethiopia is a stretch. He’s referring to a dispute over a Nile dam in the latter nation that Egypt fears will reduce the flow in its share of the key strategic waterway. He has called for a deal over the dam, but no binding agreement has been reached.

The White House claims on Serbia and Kosovo originate in Trump’s first term, when the rivals agreed to economic normalization steps. But they still don’t have diplomatic relations, 17 years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. And recent normalization efforts have involved the EU more than the Trump team.

In many ways, Trump’s claims to have ended six or seven wars are typical of a presidency that claims massive wins that often add up to less than what they seem. But there are real achievements in his record, and the possibility of genuine long-term breakthroughs if Trump can maintain application and patience.

That’s a good lesson for his nascent Ukraine peace drive.

This article and headline have been updated with additional reporting.

President Donald Trump has projected himself as a peacemaker since returning to the White House in January, touting his efforts to end global conflicts.

In meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders Monday, Trump repeated that he has been instrumental in stopping multiple wars but didn’t specify which.

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“I’ve done six wars, I’ve ended six wars, Trump said in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy. He later added: “If you look at the six deals I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires.”

He raised that figure Tuesday, telling “Fox & Friends” that “we ended seven wars.”

But although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.

Here’s a closer look at the conflicts.

Israel and Iran

Trump is credited with ending the 12-day war.

Israel launched attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership in June, saying it wanted to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon — which Tehran has denied it was trying to do.

Trump negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Iran just after directing American warplanes to strike Iran’s Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. He publicly harangued both countries into maintaining the ceasefire.

Evelyn Farkas, executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, said Trump should get credit for ending the war.

“There’s always a chance it could flare up again if Iran restarts its nuclear weapons program, but nonetheless, they were engaged in a hot war with one another,” she said. “And it didn’t have any real end in sight before President Trump got involved and gave them an ultimatum.”

Lawrence Haas, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the American Foreign Policy Council who is an expert on Israel-Iran tensions, agreed the U.S. was instrumental in securing the ceasefire. But he characterized it as a “temporary respite” from the ongoing “day-to-day cold war” between the two foes that often involves flare-ups.

President Donald Trump said on social media that Iran and Israel had agreed to a total ceasefire.

Egypt and Ethiopia

This could be described as tensions at best, and peace efforts — which don’t directly involve the U.S. — have stalled.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River has caused friction between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan since the power-generating project was announced more than a decade ago. In July, Ethiopia declared the project complete, with an inauguration set for September.

Egypt and Sudan oppose the dam. Although the vast majority of the water that flows down the Nile originates in Ethiopia, Egyptian agriculture relies on the river almost entirely. Sudan, meanwhile, fears flooding and wants to protect its own power-generating dams.

During his first term, Trump tried to broker a deal between Ethiopia and Egypt but couldn’t get them to agree. He suspended aid to Ethiopia over the dispute. In July, he posted on Truth Social that he helped the “fight over the massive dam (and) there is peace at least for now.” However, the disagreement persists, and negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have stalled.

“It would be a gross overstatement to say that these countries are at war,” said Haas. “I mean, they’re just not.”

India and Pakistan

The April killing of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir pushed India and Pakistan closer to war than they had been in years, but a ceasefire was reached.

Trump has claimed that the U.S. brokered the ceasefire, which he said came about in part because he offered trade concessions. Pakistan thanked Trump, recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But India has denied Trump’s claims, saying there was no conversation between the U.S. and India on trade in regards to the ceasefire.

Although India has downplayed the Trump administration’s role in the ceasefire, Haas and Farkas believe the U.S. deserves some credit for helping stop the fighting.

“I think that President Trump played a constructive role from all accounts, but it may not have been decisive. And again, I’m not sure whether you would define that as a full-blown war,” Farkas said.

Serbia and Kosovo

The White House lists the conflict between these countries as one Trump resolved, but there has been no threat of a war between the two neighbors during Trump’s second term, nor any significant contribution from Trump this year to improve their relations.

Kosovo is a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008. Tensions have persisted ever since, but never to the point of war, mostly because NATO-led peacekeepers have been deployed in Kosovo, which has been recognized by more than 100 countries.

During his first term, Trump negotiated a wide-ranging deal between Serbia and Kosovo, but much of what was agreed on was never carried out.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Trump has played a key role in peace efforts between the African neighbors, but he’s hardly alone and the conflict is far from over.

Eastern Congo, rich in minerals, has been battered by fighting with more than 100 armed groups. The most potent is the M23 rebel group backed by neighboring Rwanda, which claims it is protecting its territorial interests and that some of those who participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide fled to Congo and are working with the Congolese army.

The Trump administration’s efforts paid off in June, when the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers signed a peace deal at the White House. The M23, however, wasn’t directly involved in the U.S.-facilitated negotiations and said it couldn’t abide by the terms of an agreement that didn’t involve it.

The final step to peace was meant to be a separate Qatar-facilitated deal between Congo and M23 that would bring about a permanent ceasefire. But with the fighting still raging, Monday’s deadline for the Qatar-led deal was missed and there have been no public signs of major talks between Congo and M23 on the final terms.

Armenia and Azerbaijan

Trump this month hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House, where they signed a deal aimed at ending a decades-long conflict between the two nations. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the signed document a “significant milestone,” and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed Trump for performing “a miracle.”

The two countries signed agreements intended to reopen key transportation routes and reaffirm Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s commitment to signing a peace treaty. The treaty’s text was initialed by the countries’ foreign ministers at that meeting, which indicates preliminary approval. But the two countries have yet to sign and ratify the deal.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter conflict over territory since the early 1990s, when ethnic Armenian forces took control of the Karabakh province, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, and nearby territories. In 2020, Azerbaijan’s military recaptured broad swaths of territory. Russia brokered a truce and deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region.

In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces launched a lightning blitz to retake remaining portions. The two countries have worked toward normalizing ties and signing a peace treaty ever since.

Cambodia and Thailand

Officials from Thailand and Cambodia credit Trump with pushing the Asian neighbors to agree to a ceasefire in this summer’s brief border conflict.

Cambodia and Thailand have clashed in the past over their shared border. The latest fighting began in July after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers. Tensions had been growing since May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a confrontation that created a diplomatic rift and roiled Thai politics.

Both countries agreed in late July to an unconditional ceasefire during a meeting in Malaysia. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pressed for the pact, but there was little headway until Trump intervened. Trump said on social media that he warned the Thai and Cambodian leaders that the U.S. would not move forward with trade agreements if the hostilities continued. Both countries faced economic difficulties and neither had reached tariff deals with the U.S., though most of their Southeast Asian neighbors had.

According to Ken Lohatepanont, a political analyst and University of Michigan doctoral candidate, “President Trump’s decision to condition a successful conclusion to these talks on a ceasefire likely played a significant role in ensuring that both sides came to the negotiating table when they did.” ___ Associated Press reporters Jon Gambrell, Grant Peck, Dasha Litvinova, Fay Abuelgasim, Rajesh Roy, and Dusan Stojanovic contributed.

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