by Thomas Knapp | Dec 29, 2025
ANTIWAR.COM
On December 17, surrounded by festive holiday decorations, US president Donald Trump delivered an upbeat — one might even say manic — address to the nation, preempting — and enraging fans of — network TV shows such as Survivor, The Floor, and Christmas in Nashville.
While many expected something weighty (perhaps announcement of further military escalation versus Venezuela), what they got was laundry list of Trump’s “accomplishments” since his inauguration in January.
Most of those “accomplishments” — ruinous tariffs on American consumers, immoral and economically damaging immigration raids, etc. — were things we already knew about from watching our bank balances draw inexorably down.
One, however, stood out to me as the most risible. “For the first time in 3,000 years,” Trump said, he’s brought “peace to the Middle East.”
He said that, with as close to a straight face as he ever shows, hours after saluting the flag-draped caskets of two US National Guard members and a civilian interpreter killed in Syria the previous week.
He said that as thousands of Saudi-backed (and therefore US-backed) forces massed on the Yemeni border, preparing for an offensive against one of that country’s dueling political/military factions.
He said that as (US-backed) Israeli forces continued to conduct deadly strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, and raids in Palestine’s occupied West Bank, despite supposed “ceasefires.”
Words can mean more than one thing, but only in the Newspeak Dictionary from George Orwell’s 1984 might we expect to find any of the above defined as “peace” — or Donald Trump described as a “peace president.”
In his first term as president, Trump escalated every war he inherited and re-started the previous war in Somalia. He “surged” troops into Afghanistan and Syria.
In Syria, he dectupled the US military presence, had Marines fire more artillery rounds than were used in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, briefly feinted toward withdrawing, then decided to stay to “keep the oil.”
In Afghanistan, he eventually negotiated a US withdrawal … but then failed to complete that withdrawal, leaving it to his successor and complaining bitterly about it.
He reneged on the US government’s obligations under the “Iran nuclear deal,” and ordered an Iranian general assassinated while on a diplomatic mission in Iraq.
In Yemen, he ordered the murder of eight-year-old American girl Nawar Anwar al-Awlaki by US Navy SEALs.
The list goes on and on.
In his second term, he’s continued the war in Somalia and on Venezuela (to name but two), while failing on his promise to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war “in 24 hours” (or, to date, at all).
As Christmas approaches, I’m all in favor of “on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” But I find Trump’s claims and promises on that subject less believable than stories about Santa Claus.
Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism, publisher of Rational Review News Digest, and moderator of Antiwar.com’s commenting/discussion community.
‘Fast and decisive!’ Trump praises himself over debunked claim to have ended ‘eight wars’
Alexander Willis
December 28, 2025
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump lavished praise on himself Sunday in a self-congratulatory social media post boasting about his “fast and decisive” action in supposedly ending a conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, while also repeating the debunked claim that he had “settled and stopped” eight conflicts during his second term.
“I am pleased to announce that the breakout fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily, and they will go back to living in PEACE, as per our recently agreed to original Treaty,” Trump wrote Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social.
“It was FAST & DECISIVE, as all of these situations should be! The United States of America, as always, was proud to help! With all of the wars and conflicts I have settled and stopped over the last eleven months, EIGHT, perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations, which has been of very little assistance or help in any of them, including the disaster currently going on between Russia and Ukraine.”
Thailand launched airstrikes toward Cambodia on Saturday in just the latest flare up of the long-running territorial dispute between the two countries. A ceasefire between the two countries was brokered by Malaysia in July, with Trump claiming he helped facilitate the deal by threatening to revoke trade privileges unless both sides agreed to halt the fighting.
As to Trump’s repeated claim to have ended eight wars, experts have called it a significant exaggeration, with some pointing to two disputes “that weren’t actually wars,” and “one war that is still running,” CNN reported.
“The United Nations must start getting active and involved in WORLD PEACE!” Trump wrote.
Alexander Willis
December 28, 2025
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump lavished praise on himself Sunday in a self-congratulatory social media post boasting about his “fast and decisive” action in supposedly ending a conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, while also repeating the debunked claim that he had “settled and stopped” eight conflicts during his second term.
“I am pleased to announce that the breakout fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily, and they will go back to living in PEACE, as per our recently agreed to original Treaty,” Trump wrote Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social.
“It was FAST & DECISIVE, as all of these situations should be! The United States of America, as always, was proud to help! With all of the wars and conflicts I have settled and stopped over the last eleven months, EIGHT, perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations, which has been of very little assistance or help in any of them, including the disaster currently going on between Russia and Ukraine.”
Thailand launched airstrikes toward Cambodia on Saturday in just the latest flare up of the long-running territorial dispute between the two countries. A ceasefire between the two countries was brokered by Malaysia in July, with Trump claiming he helped facilitate the deal by threatening to revoke trade privileges unless both sides agreed to halt the fighting.
As to Trump’s repeated claim to have ended eight wars, experts have called it a significant exaggeration, with some pointing to two disputes “that weren’t actually wars,” and “one war that is still running,” CNN reported.
“The United Nations must start getting active and involved in WORLD PEACE!” Trump wrote.
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