Donald Trump said the United States had been wronged because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize. At a New York rally Friday, he claimed he had “settled eight wars” and said the prize should have gone to “the United States of America, represented by me as your president.” The award went to South African jurist Navi Pillay.
Trump put presidential power at the center of his argument: he cast international conflicts and diplomacy as a ledger of his own achievements, with the country denied recognition alongside him. “We should have had eight Nobel Prizes, for each war,” he said. He repeated the complaint in a nearly 600-word social media post after the rally, then again Saturday morning.
A tally built on unfinished conflicts
Five items on Trump’s list involved nonexistent wars or conflicts that hadn’t ended or had resumed, according to the account. Egypt and Ethiopia didn’t fight a war over the major Ethiopian dam project opposed by Egypt. Instead, the two countries have had a long-running diplomatic dispute, and their relations remain tense.
Trump also cited a supposed situation between Kosovo and Serbia, though the two weren’t at war during his presidency. He didn’t explain the reference at the rally or in his social media post.
The war involving Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo hasn’t ended. The Trump administration brokered a peace agreement last year, but the M23 rebel group didn’t sign it. So a deal presented as presidential peacemaking left a central armed group outside the agreement, while fighting continued.
Trump claimed he settled the Israel-Hamas war, too. Israel has continued frequent attacks in Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas, in the year since the October 2025 ceasefire, in which the Trump administration played a key role.
Deals, claims and the machinery of war
Trump has also said he settled the June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict. In February 2026, Israel joined the Trump-led United States in going to war with Iran. At Friday’s rally, Trump sounded tentative about his earlier claim: “Israel and Iran – in a sense, because Iran is – we've wiped out their nuclear capacity, totally wiped it out.”
Three items on the list appeared more solid, though people could reasonably debate Trump’s and his administration’s roles. Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan credited Trump with involvement in a significant deal last year that moved the countries toward ending their prolonged Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Some experts said he played a significant role in achieving a ceasefire in a July 2025 border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. Clashes flared again in December before another truce.
Pakistan’s prime minister enthusiastically highlighted Trump’s role in ending a deadly 2025 conflict with India. India’s government denied Trump was a factor. Those competing accounts leave no basis for treating the settlement as a straightforward personal achievement.
Presidential promises don’t end wars by decree
Trump said, “I did eight (wars). No president's ever done any,” disregarding wars other U.S. presidents settled by winning them or brokering peace agreements. Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel in 1906 for his role in an agreement ending a war between the Russian and Japanese empires.
Trump also said, “And I also, by the way, got Greenland. I hope you're happy about that.” He secured a new U.S. agreement with Denmark that modestly expands U.S. rights in Greenland, but the territory remains under Danish sovereignty.
He claimed Iran had planned to destroy Israel, the Middle East, Europe and possibly part of the United States before the U.S. “obliterated” Iran. The account said there was no proof Iran had planned, or could realistically have achieved, that destruction.
Trump said he was “about to settle” the Russia-Ukraine war and called a possible resolution, along with one to the Iran war, “happening at breakneck speed.” During his 2024 campaign, he promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war either as president-elect or within 24 hours of returning to office. January 2025 was more than 20 months before the report. The promise remains a presidential claim; the account describes no settlement.