The Daily Populous Friday October 3rd, 2025 morning edition
Authored by msnbc.com and submitted by msnbc

Donald Trump doesn’t know exactly how many wars he has ended, he’s pretty sure it’s “a lot.” Over the summer, the president boasted about having ended five wars, six wars and, most recently, seven wars (or quite possibly 10 wars).

The reality, of course, is that Trump has wildly exaggerated his record, taking credit for resolving conflicts he had little to do with, and even pointing to wars that haven’t actually been resolved. What’s more, in a couple of instances, the Republican president has slipped up and pointed to wars that never happened in the first place, including an imaginary conflict between Cambodia and Armenia, as well as a recent boast on Fox News in which he said, “I solved wars that was unsolvable,” pointing to a conflict between Azerbaijan and Albania.”

The trouble, of course, is that Azerbaijan and Albania weren’t at war. Trump slipped up and confused Albania and Armenia.

The mistake did not go unnoticed among the leaders of the relevant nations. Politico reported:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s geographic confusion was the butt of a joke between world leaders at a summit Thursday. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was filmed poking fun with French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev at the European Political Community meeting in Copenhagen on Thursday.

“You should make an apology ... to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan,” Rama told Macron, as Aliyev was seen laughing.

Playing along, the French president replied: “I am sorry for that.”

I mention all of this, not because Trump confused two countries with similar names — a harmless error that could’ve happened to anyone — but because the American president seems to hate being the subject of ridicule, especially on the international stage, but it keeps happening anyway.

In 2019, for example, Macron, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were recorded at a Buckingham Palace reception, apparently mocking their American counterpart. A year earlier, during remarks at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump bragged about how impressed he is with himself, at which point some of the diplomats in the room started audibly laughing.

These are two of the more memorable instances, but there are other examples.

For all of Trump’s boasts about how he has singlehandedly improved international respect for the United States, the evidence suggests many of his global counterparts see him as a punchline.

EagleCatchingFish on October 3rd, 2025 at 04:11 UTC »

I'm so frustrated by the constant misinformation on this page. He didn't end the war between Azerbaijan and Albania. He ended the war between "Aberbaijan" and Albania.

IdeasOfOne on October 2nd, 2025 at 18:00 UTC »

As a non-American, this feels like watching one of those parody movies. It would have been pretty amusing if it didn't have disastrous real world consequences..

msnbc on October 2nd, 2025 at 17:44 UTC »

From Steve Benen, editor of MaddowBlog and producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show”:

Donald Trump doesn’t know exactly how many wars he has ended, he’s pretty sure it’s “a lot.” Over the summer, the president boasted about having ended five wars, six wars and, most recently, seven wars (or quite possibly 10 wars).

The reality, of course, is that Trump has wildly exaggerated his record, taking credit for resolving conflicts he had little to do with, and even pointing to wars that haven’t actually been resolved. What’s more, in a couple of instances, the Republican president has slipped up and pointed to wars that never happened in the first place, including an imaginary conflict between Cambodia and Armenia, as well as a recent boast on Fox News in which he said, “I solved wars that was unsolvable,” pointing to a conflict between Azerbaijan and Albania.”

The trouble, of course, is that Azerbaijan and Albania weren’t at war. Trump slipped up and confused Albania and Armenia.

The mistake did not go unnoticed among the leaders of the relevant nations.