{"id":37948,"date":"2025-12-18T01:46:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=37948"},"modified":"2025-12-18T01:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T01:46:18","slug":"trumps-peace-president-claim-isnt-holding-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=37948","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s \u2018Peace President\u2019 Claim Isn\u2019t Holding Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado made a daring escape from her home country to Norway, where she was honored as winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The team that extracted her had several worries\u2014including the risk that American forces in the Caribbean would strike the boats used in the operation, members told The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Machado avoided F-16s and drones on her way to Oslo, but the outcome her rescuers feared would have been remarkable: the man who campaigned frantically to win the Nobel Peace Prize inadvertently killing the woman who did, as part of a likely illegal series of boat strikes that may climax with a land war in South America.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Trump\u2014who has deemed himself the \u201cpeace president\u201d\u2014escalated his belligerence against Venezuela, announcing a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers and demanding that the government \u201creturn to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.\u201d This is difficult to parse, but the Trump aide Stephen Miller suggests that it refers to past nationalization of the petroleum industry. In any case, a blockade could be an act of war under international law.<\/p>\n

This past Friday, Trump said the United States would launch land strikes within Latin America. \u201cWe knocked out 96 percent of the drugs coming in by water, and now we\u2019re starting by land, and by land is a lot easier, and that\u2019s going to start happening,\u201d Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. The 96 percent mark is unrealistic and backed by no evidence, as is the notion that land wars are easier than drone strikes at sea.<\/p>\n

Congress has neither authorized nor been asked to authorize these actions. The White House has relied on the tortured argument that because it has deemed that U.S. troops are not in active danger, the law doesn\u2019t apply. Nor is it clear what the strategic rationale for such a strike on sovereign countries would be\u2014much less the legal justification. (The administration insists its boat strikes are legal, but officials have been vague about their legal arguments and experts disagree.) Trump has claimed that drug interdiction is a goal, and said Friday that strikes might hit countries other than Venezuela.<\/p>\n

But he has also been moving to force Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro out of power, as White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in an article published this week. Although Trump claims that Maduro is a drug kingpin, American intelligence assessments contradict him, and my Atlantic colleagues have reported that the administration\u2019s real goal is to gain access to oil and rare earth minerals. This apparent drift toward a 19th-century-style imperialist war is notable for a president who ran in 2016 criticizing both parties\u2019 embrace of foreign military interventions. (Trump has said for years, however, that the U.S. should have taken Iraq\u2019s oil\u2014whatever that means.)<\/p>\n

In the places where Trump is not on the verge of starting a new war, some of the many conflicts he claims to have resolved stubbornly refuse to stop. On the border between Thailand and Cambodia, both countries continue to fight, part of hostilities that have killed at least two dozen people and forced half a million to flee. Although Trump announced a cease-fire this past Friday, both governments said no such agreement has been struck.<\/p>\n

In Africa, fighting also persists between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a rebel group understood to be backed by neighboring Rwanda. In that case, Trump did manage to bring together the leaders of the DRC and Rwanda for a ceremony two weeks ago. The problem is that the peace hasn\u2019t held; instead the rebel group has continued fighting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described its actions as \u201ca clear violation\u201d of the cease-fire. A cease-fire in Gaza, achieved this fall, is also very tenuous. Israeli air strikes have continued sporadically, and Palestinian officials have said that at least 391 Palestinians have been killed since the agreement. The Israeli and U.S. governments sometimes question those figures, but Axios reports that the White House scolded the Israeli government for a strike over the weekend, which it said was a violation of the cease-fire.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an end to the war in Ukraine, which Trump seems to want badly, remains elusive. On Monday, American officials said that the United States, Europe, and Ukraine have agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine, though it\u2019s not clear whether Russia will accept the cease-fire plan. The larger problem is still land: As part of a deal, Trump is reportedly pressuring Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia has not managed to capture through its yearslong, grinding war of aggression involving frequent war crimes. For obvious reasons, that\u2019s a nonstarter for Ukraine. But Russia\u2014which knows that Trump likes and often caves to President Vladimir Putin\u2014shows little interest in concessions.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no shame in a president failing to resolve every conflict around the globe. Trump shouldn\u2019t be expected to find solutions that have eluded previous leaders or bedeviled the world for decades\u2014though he should be celebrated if he does; the Abraham Accords and the Gaza cease-fire are positive achievements. The problem is claiming to have resolved conflicts that aren\u2019t over and announcing agreements that aren\u2019t real. Trump doesn\u2019t want to do the work, but he still wants the world to recognize his putative achievements with a Nobel Peace Prize. That honor seems out of reach barring some major developments, but at least he\u2019s got the FIFA Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

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