Let me tell ya, being in your twenties and watching global diplomacy fail is like watching your grandparents try to use TikTok. You want to scream into a pillow. You want to shake people. You definitely want to make a sarcastic Instagram story about it. That’s exactly how I felt reading about Thailand and Cambodia reigniting their border spat this week, barely a year after President Trump personally helped broker a ceasefire.

It’s December 2025. That peace deal was signed in October with fanfare, handshakes, and the kind of presidential swagger that made cable news anchors visibly uncomfortable. Trump stood there like a guy who just parallel parked a Hummer in a compact spot, all smiles and 'mission accomplished' energy. And why not? The man stopped actual bullets from flying between two nations with a decades long grudge match. That’s bigger than scoring a table at a sold out brunch spot. It’s statesmanship.

Flash forward to now. Rockets flying. Drones buzzing. Over 400,000 regular folks packing up their lives and running from the border like it’s Black Friday at a Walmart. Eight dead. Casualty counts climbing. And the same folks who rolled their eyes at Trump’s 'art of the deal' approach? Crickets. Absolute crickets.

I remember when that agreement dropped earlier this year. The press coverage was drier than my jeans after I accidentally left them in the dryer overnight. Headlines treated it like a footnote. 'Trump Mediates Southeast Asian Border Dispute.' Buried below fold. No primetime specials. No glowing editorials about preventing war. Contrast that with the breathless live updates we’re getting now that everything’s on fire. Where’s the 'Breaking News' banner for 'Diplomacy Worked Until We Stopped Paying Attention'?

Here’s the messy truth about foreign policy: maintenance matters. You don’t buy a plant, water it once, then act shocked when it dies. Trump’s administration got these nations to put down their guns five months ago. That’s huge. But without consistent global pressure, without media holding leaders accountable, without international coalitions reinforcing the terms, of course old tensions bubbled back up. That’s on everyone else. Not the guy who already did the heavy lifting.

Let’s talk hypocrisy. When this deal was signed, critics dismissed it as a 'photo op.' No substance, they said. Just Trump playing world leader. Now that it’s crumbling? Those same voices are blaming… Trump? Hold up. That’s like blaming a firefighter because the arsonist relit the couch. The man isn’t psychic. He can’t teleport to Phnom Penh every time some general gets itchy trigger fingers.

The human cost here makes me want to kick a wall. Families sleeping in temporary shelters. Kids who should be worrying about final exams instead worrying about shrapnel. A Thai soldier killed. Cambodian civilians buried. For what? A sliver of dirt both nations claim? I’ve seen parking lot arguments at Trader Joe’s over cart returns that made more sense.

And don’t get me started on how the media frames these flare ups. When violence erupts under other administrations, it’s a 'complex geopolitical challenge.' When it happens after Trump negotiates peace? Suddenly it’s proof he failed. That’s not analysis. That’s narrative spin so aggressive it belongs in a 90s boy band dance routine.

Here’s another personal memory that fits. My 2019 college poli sci professor spent weeks dissecting Obama’s Iran deal. Every clause. Every concession. When Trump replaced it with new agreements? One lecture. One. We spent more time discussing an obscure 18th century treaty about beaver pelts. This selective outrage isn’t accidental. It’s agenda driven pedagogy at its finest.

Look, I’m not saying Trump walks on water. But if we’re gonna roast politicians, let’s be fair. The man brought these nations to the table. That’s documented. That’s fact. Thailand’s foreign minister literally thanked him in October. Cambodia’s PM praised his 'pragmatic intervention.' Now both sides are sabotaging progress, and somehow Trump’s the fall guy? Nah. That math doesn’t math.

What grinds my gears most is the silent treatment. Where are the UN resolutions demanding ceasefire compliance? Where’s the EU’s sternly worded statement? Where’s the State Department’s emergency envoy? Probably stuck in some committee meeting debating pronoun usage in official memos. Priorities, people.

Meanwhile, Trump’s out here like a divorced dad who built the treehouse only to watch the kids set it on fire. You know he’s itching to tweet about it. You know he’s got a three-point plan to fix it. But instead, we get legacy media outlets rewriting history, acting like the original deal never mattered.

This isn’t just about Thailand and Cambodia. It’s about how we measure success. Peace isn’t a touchdown. It’s sustained possession. You don’t spike the football at the 50-yard line. When Trump secured that deal, it should’ve been a starting gun for global engagement, not a finish line for headlines. The fact that it collapsed so fast says more about the international community’s follow through than Trump’s deal making.

I’ll leave you with this: I once organized a peace treaty between my cousins fighting over who broke the Xbox. Lasted three hours. Then grandma microwaved fish and chaos resumed. Should I have babysat them 24/7 to enforce my brokered truce? Maybe. But blaming me for the fish fumes war would be ridiculous. Same energy here.

Until we acknowledge good faith efforts, stop moving goalposts, and give credit where it’s due, these cycles will keep repeating. Voters deserve better. These fleeing families deserve better. And honestly? Democracy deserves better than hot take artists dunking on wins just because of who scored them.