menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Thailand Fact-Checks Trump on Bogus Ceasefire Claim

3 12
14.12.2025

It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last—President Donald Trump was a little too eager to claim he had ended an international conflict.

On Friday, the U.S. president said that the countries of Thailand and Cambodia, which have been involved in clashes that have left at least 20 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands over the past week, had agreed to a truce.

The president wrote on Truth Social that he had a “very good conversation” with the prime ministers of both countries, and they had achieved a breakthrough. “Both Countries are ready for PEACE and continued Trade with the United States of America. It is my Honor to work with Anutin and Hun in resolving what could have evolved into a major War between two otherwise wonderful and prosperous Countries!” Trump wrote.

The ceasefire was supposed to begin yesterday, per Trump’s announcement, and the White House shared the president’s post on Facebook as well.

But on Saturday, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul definitively refuted Trump’s claim, The New York Times reported.

“Thailand will continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people,” he wrote on Facebook. “I want to make it clear.”

Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow also said that Trump’s comments didn’t “reflect an accurate understanding of the situation,” per CBS News.

Cambodia’s prime minister has not directly refuted the claim, but made no mention of a new ceasefire agreement.

On Saturday, the violence continued, as Thailand carried out airstrikes along the border between the two countries. The fighting is the latest iteration of a border conflict that’s been simmering for some time.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to repeat the claim that he’s ended a dizzying number of conflicts as part of his endless quest for the Nobel Peace Prize. This time, though, facts intervened.

Chuob Chhouk, a vegetable seller in Cambodia who had been displaced from her home, told the Times, “I want a real ceasefire, not just words.”

Kristi Noem is scrambling to shift blame to her subordinates for not meeting deportation quotas as the Department of Homeland Security descends into an atmosphere of chaos and finger-pointing, according to a new report.

Noem and her right-hand man (and alleged boyfriend) Corey Lewandowski have been playing the blame game, two DHS officials with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News, setting up acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott to take the fall.

Scott had been excluded from strategic conversations as well as social gatherings, and that department leaders told him he may soon be out of a job, the sources said. Scott was reportedly even worried that Lewandowski was reading his emails.

He’s not the only one with reason to be afraid: The White House is reportedly growing tired with Noem’s brash leadership, especially her relationship with Lewandowski. DHS officials told The Bulwark in early December that she could be out “really soon.”

As the agency leading President Donald Trump’s hallmark deportation campaign, DHS is under a lot of scrutiny. And despite Noem’s efforts to boost numbers by cruelly grabbing people off the street at random, immigrants or not, she’s way behind where the president wants her to be.


Far from Stephen Miller’s brutal goal of 3,000 deportations per day, ICE is reportedly arresting fewer than 1,000 people each day on average. And unlike Noem and Trump promised, they are not just going after the “worst of the worst”: more than a third of the people arrested so far have no criminal history at all.

The Transportation Security Administration is now sharing passenger data with ICE to enable Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Before Trump, ICE didn’t get involved with domestic travel—and the TSA didn’t concern itself with immigration matters. But since March, according to a new report by The New York Times, the two agencies have quietly been working together to apprehend people at the airport at the command of the Trump administration.

According to the Times, it’s not clear how many arrests have been made so far. But the paper obtained documents that show the program led to the arrest of 19-year-old Any Lucía López Belloza, who was picked up at Boston Logan Airport when trying to visit her family in Texas for Thanksgiving. Two days later, López was deported to Honduras, where she had not been since she was 7 years old.

According to former ICE officials interviewed by the Times, the program can help the agency meet its high deportation quotas—plus, it allows agents to quickly deport those caught, like López.

“The administration has turned routine travel into a force multiplier for removals, potentially identifying thousands who thought they could evade the law simply by boarding a plane,” said former deputy head of ICE in New York City, Scott Mechkowski.

Since Trump took office in........

© New Republic