President Donald Trump took office last month touting his commitment to ending wars. “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker,” he announced in his recent inaugural address. For years, in fact, Trump has touted his antiwar credentials and boasted about ending “endless wars.”

On Saturday, Trump ramped up America’s longest-running war, carrying out a strike in Somalia that killed an unspecified number of people. “These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies,” Trump posted on social media. “The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.”

Trump asserted that the airstrike killed a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner” that the Biden administration failed to strike, despite a yearslong military targeting effort. “The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that ‘WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!’” Trump announced.

U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, noted that the strike was conducted “in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia” but a Somali government official, speaking to The Intercept on background because he was not authorized to talk with the press, said very little advance notice was given.

AFRICOM did not confirm Trump’s assertions that the attack involved a cave complex, that the “Senior ISIS Attack Planner” had been targeted for years, or........

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