President Donald Trump is championing himself as an expert in conflict resolution after helping successfully negotiate peace between Thailand and Cambodia.
The president boasted about his accomplishment Monday while speaking to reporters in Scotland alongside U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“That was going to be a very bad war, and so we’re honored we got involved, and it’s essentially settled. I think they’re going to be settling it today. So it went for a few days — that was gonna go on for years, that could have gone on for years. Millions of people could have been killed. We ended the war, and we’re very happy about it.”
The two Southeast Asian countries reached an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire on Monday, ending days of scattered conflict on their shared border that has killed dozens of people since last Thursday.
The White House was already in trade talks with Thailand and Cambodia “by coincidence.” Trump attributed the rapid de-escalation to his threat of dropping trade negotiations with both countries if peace was not established.
Acting Prime Minister of Thailand Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet thanked Trump specifically during a press conference on Monday.
When asked about Israel and Gaza in the Scottish press pool, the president made a broader claim that his administration has now been responsible for preventing six “major wars” since taking control of the United States in January.
“We have many ceasefires going on. The whole world is — if I weren’t around right now, you’d have six major wars going on,” he said. “We’ve done a lot. It’s an honor to do it. It’s not hard for me to do it. And I use — not in all cases — but I use a combination of knowing them a little bit or, in some cases, knowing them a lot.… We stopped a lot of wars, and it’s a great honor to have done it.”
Trump seemed to be referencing his successful ceasefire deals struck between India and Pakistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Israel and Iran. The administration released a post-press pool document that claimed he was also referencing his first-term peace negotiations with Serbia and Kosovo and the Abraham Accords.
Also noted was Trump’s role in talks between Egypt and Ethiopia, which scrimmaged over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the Nile River during his first term. No treaties were signed on the issue, and political hostility remains.
Trump appears to be capitalizing on this latest success by pressuring the Kremlin to come to the table for their own peace deal.
The president announced that the 50-day time frame for Russia to cease hostilities against Ukraine is being shortened with a “new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from [July 28].”
THAILAND AND CAMBODIA REACH ‘UNCONDITIONAL’ CEASEFIRE DEAL AFTER TRUMP WARNS TRADE TALKS ON LINE
“I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer [to] what’s going to happen,” Trump said. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore.”
Russia rejected the White House’s initial 50-day deadline after it was first announced.
