Donald Trump spent Wednesday defending his claim that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, even as U.S. forces continued striking Iran and the ceasefire he spent weeks bragging about appeared to collapse.
Flying home aboard Air Force One, Trump once again presented himself as the great global dealmaker, claiming he had ended eight wars and arguing that his supposed peace record made him more deserving of the award than anyone who has ever received it.
Then he made an extraordinary claim about one of those conflicts.
“I settled it after 14 years and about 15 million people had their heads chopped off,” Trump said, referring to the long-running conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
There is no evidence that 15 million people were beheaded in that conflict, or that Trump personally ended a war at all.
The agreement Trump helped broker between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was signed in Washington last December, but the situation has remained unstable, with fighting continuing after the deal, and the two leaders reportedly refusing to even shake hands during the signing ceremony.
That did not stop Trump from using the claim to make his familiar argument: that the Nobel Peace Prize should belong to him.
“I should’ve won that award more than anybody that ever received the Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump told reporters. “Because nobody’s settled wars. I settled eight of them.”
Trump also complained about last year’s award going to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, claiming she had told him he was the person who deserved the honor.
The comments came as Trump’s own claimed peace deal with Iran was falling apart.
The United States and Iran exchanged fire for a second straight night, with American forces carrying out strikes on Iranian targets while Tehran launched retaliatory attacks against U.S. positions in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Jordan also said it intercepted Iranian missiles crossing its airspace, raising fears that the conflict could spread further across the region.
The escalation came just hours after Trump declared negotiations with Iran were pointless.
“It’s a waste of time,” Trump said at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, while calling Iranian leaders “scum” and “sick people.”
But after the strikes resumed, Trump insisted Iran was still desperate for a deal.
“They want to make a deal so badly,” he said while returning to Washington.
The reality on the ground appeared far more complicated.
The ceasefire Trump repeatedly promoted as a major diplomatic achievement was unraveling, with regional mediators scrambling to prevent the fighting from turning into a wider war.
Oil prices also climbed as markets reacted to the renewed instability, adding another layer of pressure from a conflict Trump had repeatedly promised was under control.
