THAT WAS QUICK

Trump ‘Peace Deal’ Shattered Already by Cross-Border Attacks

Thai airstrikes on Cambodia and a land-mine blast injuring four soldiers tested Donald Trump’s vaunted peace deal.

Airstrikes and land-mine blasts have blown apart one of Donald Trump’s claimed peace deals, even as the president basks in the glow of receiving a peace prize created especially for him. The 79-year-old president was awarded the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize on Friday at the draw for the soccer World Cup finals, hanging the medal around his own neck at a Kennedy Center ceremony. But one of the eight or so global truces Trump claims to have brokered, between the Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand and Cambodia, is now buckling. Thai warplanes struck Cambodian positions along their disputed frontier on Monday, with Thailand’s military claiming its neighbor had massed “heavy weaponry” and “prepared fire support elements,” warranting air power, the Washington Post reported. Cambodia, which denies laying the land mines that injured four Thai soldiers in November, accused Bangkok of “numerous provocative actions for many days” and said it did not fire back. Trump had threatened to halt tariff talks to push both sides into an October peace accord and boasted at the signing: “We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done… something I’m good at and something I love to do.” He has often forgotten the names of the countries he supposedly helped broker peace deals, while regularly saying how much he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping numerous world conflicts, even though his involvement and the exact number are disputed.