Trump falsely claims no other US president has ever solved a war
The president’s comments came as he welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House
President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. has “never had a president that solved one war,” as he spoke to reporters ahead of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky arrived at the White House on Friday to discuss strengthening U.S. support for Kyiv amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump also announced Thursday he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary.
Trump made the false claim about his predecessors while in the White House Cabinet Room, shortly before kicking off talks with the Ukrainian leader.
“Every time I solve one, they said, ‘Sir, if you solve one more, you're going to be known as a peacekeeper,’” Trump said. “To the best of my knowledge, we've never had a president that solved one war, not one war. Bush started a war. A lot of them start wars, but they don't solve the wars.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment on Trump’s remarks.
There are several U.S. presidents whose administrations have played a key role in ending conflicts. This list includes, but is not limited to:
- President Theodore Roosevelt, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for having negotiated peace in the Russo-Japanese War.
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who sought an end to the Korean War. An armistice was signed in July 1953, seven months after his inauguration.
- President Abraham Lincoln, who was commander-in-chief when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. This marked the most significant surrender in the conflict. Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, then formally ended the war in 1866. Grant also served as president from 1869 to 1877.
- President Harry S. Truman, who worked with Great Britain and China during World War II to issue the Potsdam Declaration, which demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender. When Japan did not accept, Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb. The U.S. bombed Japan twice, and the nation surrendered afterward, effectively ending World War II.
Before making this claim about former U.S. presidents, Trump boasted that he had ended “eight wars” and complained he did not win a Nobel Peace Prize for any of them.
“Look at all of the wars that we solve, and every time I solve one, they say, ‘If you solve the next one, you're going to get the Nobel Prize,’” he said. “I didn't get a Nobel Prize.”
Trump and his allies campaigned for him to win a Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month after he announced the first phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. When the prestigious award instead went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the Nobel committee of placing “politics over peace.”
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives,” he wrote on X. “He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
Machado went on to dedicate her award to Trump.
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