IT’S COMPLICATED

CNN Fact-Checks Trump, 79, Eight Times in Three Minutes

The president has claimed to have ended eight wars, but it’s not that simple.

CNN’s Jake Tapper has scrutinized Donald Trump’s claim that he has ended eight wars since taking office in January

In a matter of minutes on Monday, Tapper went through the list of conflicts that Trump has claimed to have solved in his first year back in office.

Point by point, the 56-year-old host dismissed Trump’s claims and highlighted the sad reality that for many conflicts, there seems to be no end in sight.

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The anchor of The Lead began with Cambodia and Thailand.

“This was a five-day armed conflict that ended with a ceasefire agreement in July. Thai and Cambodian leaders released a joint statement crediting Trump for his role in stopping the conflict,“ he said.

”But today, Thailand launched airstrikes against Cambodia. Thailand‘s army says the strikes were in retaliation for an attack that killed a Thai soldier. The White House responded a short while ago, saying it expects both governments to fully honor their commitments to end the fighting."

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The second conflict was between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. Trump, 79, on Thursday held a peace deal signing ceremony with leaders of both countries at the U.S. Institute of Peace, the exterior of which now bears Trump’s name.

“That war has continued, however, in part because Thursday‘s deal was never signed by the leading rebel coalition that‘s actually doing most of the fighting,” Tapper said. “And just today, a bomb explosion killed more than 30 people in eastern Congo.”

Next on the list was Ethiopia and Egypt.

“This is not actually a war,” Tapper, 56, explained. “It‘s a long-running diplomatic dispute about a major Ethiopian dam project on the Nile. It‘s a dispute that remains unresolved, but tensions over the dam have never reached the point of actual warfare.“

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As for Serbia and Kosovo, Tapper said it was an instance of Trump claiming to have “prevented the eruption of...a more new war” between the Eastern European countries.

“But that is different than settling an actual war, of course,” he said.

Tapper then turned to the Israel-Hamas War, for which a ceasefire deal was agreed in October. But both sides have since violated it, he noted, adding that the agreement’s second phase hasn’t been implemented.

“But absolutely, the president and his team should be praised for the ceasefire, and we all hope it does become a real peace,” he said.

Trump seems to have the best argument when it comes to Israel and Iran.

While Trump did order airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Tapper cited several experts who said the president does deserve some credit for ending those hostilities.

No. 7 on Trump’s list was India and Pakistan.

“This conflict heated up after a terrorist attack in April. It led to days of drone and missile strikes,” Tapper said. “The Indian government has denied that the U.S. played a role in negotiating the ceasefire. The Pakistani government said it would nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.”

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Finally: the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Tapper mentioned how leaders met at the White House in August to sign a declaration to seek peace, but not an actual peace agreement.

“A final peace agreement has yet to happen,” Tapper noted. “So as to the claim from President Trump that he‘s ended eight wars—as you may have guessed, it‘s a little bit more complicated than that."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize, instead settled for the FIFA Peace Prize, which his pal, Gianni Infantino, hastily created for him.

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