In Malaysia on Sunday, on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders, President Donald Trump presided over a ceremony for the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. The two countries had already agreed to a ceasefire back in July to end a five-day skirmish, the latest flare-up of a decades-old border dispute. This was an “enhanced” deal that included agreements from both countries to pull back their heavy artillery and allow international monitors. But the reason the ceremony was held probably had more to do with the fact that Trump had demanded it as a condition for attending the summit.

Not surprisingly, Trump again took the opportunity to tout, as he has constantly over the past few months, the “eight wars that my administration has ended in eight months,” adding, “there’s never been anything like that. We’re averaging one a month… It’s like, I shouldn’t say it’s a hobby, because it’s so much more serious, but something I’m good at and something I love to do.” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet dutifully endorsed Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize at the ceremony.

There’s an old saw that war is God’s way of teaching Americans geography. If nothing else, Trump’s quest for a Peace Prize is having a similar effect, bringing an Oval Office spotlight to some global conflicts that don’t normally rank high in American media coverage.

“I can’t remember the last time an American president has so consistently brought up Thailand and Cambodia, or Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Eurasia Group president and foreign affairs commentator Ian Bremmer wrote recently. Trump himself sometimes seems a little fuzzy on the geography, having claimed at various points to have brought peace to Albania and Azerbaijan and between Cambodia and Armenia. But in Trump’s telling, his ability to quickly strike these agreements is proof that many of the world’s problems are the result of the “stupidity” of his predecessors, and that his own decades of dealmaking make him better qualified to solve these problems than the diplomatic corps he has drastically cut and sidelined.

In fairness, the eight conflicts Trump refers to are real and serious. But a closer look at his claims to have ended them reveals some blatant exaggerations, some genuine but tentative successes, and some head-scratchers. Let’s take his self-proclaimed triumphs one by one.

Israel and Hamas

This is the big one: One of the two globally polarizing wars (along with Russia and Ukraine, where there’s been less success in peacemaking) that Trump claims would never have broken out if he had been president and that he vowed to quickly solve. Undoubtedly, Trump’s willingness to apply pressure to Israel and his ability to wrangle Arab allies to pressure Hamas was critical in reaching the ceasefire and hostage release deal that went into effect in mid-October.

But it’s also worth remembering that there was already a ceasefire in place when Trump took office in January, one that lasted until March when Israel resumed airstrikes and halted aid into........

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