“Everyone says that I should get a Nobel Peace Prize,” U.S. President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly this month, because “I ended seven unendable wars in seven months.” The boast was classic Trump: extravagantly formulated, unironically delivered and patently false.
A recent poll indicates that only 22% of U.S. adults believe that Trump deserves the Nobel Prize — a far cry from “everyone” — with 76% of respondents stating that he does not deserve it. Perhaps this reflects the fact that Trump has not ended seven wars. Arguably, he has not even ended one.
Some of Trump’s claims were pure fiction. For example, he took credit for ending a war between Egypt and Ethiopia. But, although bilateral tensions over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have simmered for years, they have never boiled over into war. Likewise, Trump claimed to have ended a nonexistent war between Kosovo and Serbia. Despite consiuaderable hostility — and a history of violent clashes — the two countries have not been at war since the 1990s. No war is easier to end than one that has never started.
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