US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for brokering a truce between India and Pakistan, a narrative he has repeated numerous times over the years. In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump attributed the ceasefire following the military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations to a tariff threat he imposed, warning that business would be impossible if hostilities continued. The claims gained fresh support from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who praised Trump at the Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt, crediting him for “saving millions of lives.”
In the interview, Trump highlighted his ‘record’ in ending conflicts, stating that he ended eight wars, five of them as a result of tariff threats. He explained, “The threat of tariffs kept India and Pakistan, two nuclear nations, from going at it. Seven planes were shot down…that could’ve been a nuclear war.”
Trump further described his interaction with the two countries: “The Prime Minister of Pakistan just said that Donald Trump saved millions of lives. I said to India and Pakistan pretty much the same thing, If you’re gonna fight each other, I’m not doing business with you, we’re gonna put 200% tariffs, which will make it impossible for you to deal.”
He continued, detailing how both nations reacted to the threat: “No, no, no, they said. And after 24 hours I settled the war.” Trump has consistently cited these events to bolster his assertion that he played a direct role in ending hostilities between India and Pakistan.
The praise from Shehbaz Sharif came during the Sharm El-Sheikh Gaza Peace Summit last week, where the Pakistan Prime Minister explicitly credited Trump for stopping a war with India. Sharif also went so far as to suggest Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for his “outstanding, extraordinary contributions… to stop the war between India and Pakistan and then achieve a ceasefire along with his very wonderful team.”
Trump’s repeated claims, coupled with Sharif’s public praise, have reignited debate over US president’s role in international conflict resolution, particularly in the sensitive context of South Asia’s nuclear-armed nations. Whether the tariff threat was indeed decisive remains a topic of discussion among analysts and political commentators alike, but Trump continues to cite it as a major achievement of his foreign policy.
