JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
As he struggles to end war in Ukraine, President Trump has turned to boasting of reaching an ever-increasing number of peace agreements and ceasefires in other parts of the world.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We've stopped seven wars. And really the number is actually 10.
SUMMERS: But NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez says the reality of those peace agreements is not so black and white.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: During the campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump would say in interview after interview that he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Here he is on Fox News back in 2023.
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TRUMP: And there's a very easy negotiation to take place. But I don't want to tell you what it is because then I can't use that negotiation. It'll never work.
ORDOÑEZ: But whatever he tried, it didn't work, as President Trump ran into the harsh realities of governing and diplomacy. Trump's, of course, not one to focus on his struggles, so a few months into his administration, Trump turned to touting his efforts to end other conflicts.
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TRUMP: On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire - I think a permanent one - between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons.
ORDOÑEZ: Lisa Curtis, a point person on South and Central Asia during the first Trump administration, says Trump deserves credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
LISA CURTIS: This was absolutely critical. Anytime you have two nuclear-armed countries in conflict, there is tremendous concern that it would escalate to the point of a nuclear exchange.
ORDOÑEZ: And while India contradicted the U.S. version of events, Curtis sees the May agreement as a turning point for Trump in how he looks at applying U S. influence around the world.
CURTIS: I think when he saw, well, actually, the U.S. can play an influential role, and, you know, I can get credit for, you know, trying to stop some of these conflicts, I think, you know, a light bulb went off.
ORDOÑEZ: It was the start of an evolution, as Curtis put it, that surprised a lot of people in diplomatic circles.
MICHAEL O'HANLON: I love that President Trump wants to evaluate himself and have others do so by this particular metric.
ORDOÑEZ: Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, notes that most people associate Trump's America First policies with isolationism and kind of an indifference to other countries' challenges. And yet, while he credits Trump with having a positive influence on several of these conflicts, O'Hanlon says the administration is largely exaggerating its role.
O'HANLON: All these different conflicts that he's taking credit for - some of them are not even over. Others of them, you know, are very brittle in whatever peace may be taking shape. And still others, he had very modest roles in influencing, if any.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump and his team have cited his work around the world when advocating for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump's chief envoy, Steve Witkoff, this week called Trump's efforts game-changing.
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STEVE WITKOFF: There's only one thing I wish for - that that Nobel committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate.
ORDOÑEZ: Experts say Trump deserves credit for reducing tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. But fighting continues in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even after a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda, which Trump hailed as a, quote, "glorious triumph for the cause of peace."
MICHELLE GAVIN: You know, peace has not broken out.
ORDOÑEZ: That's Michelle Gavin, a former U.S. ambassador to Botswana during the Obama administration. Sometimes it helps to announce agreements that can be used to apply pressure on the parties involved. But she says this feels like the Trump administration is prioritizing the announcement of a peace deal before peace actually arrives.
GAVIN: I'm very glad that this administration is not ignoring the crisis in Central Africa, but it just seems like a real race to declare mission accomplished before the hard work has been done.
ORDOÑEZ: And she wonders whether this administration has the appetite for the dogged diplomacy that she says is required to make sure these announcements are fulfilled.
Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, the White House.
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