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Before claiming he stopped a nuclear war, Trump himself admitted India handles Pakistan without outside help
Trump India-Pakistan claims: Trump claims he spoke to PM Modi during India-Pakistan war despite New Delhi’s fact-check (Reuters Image)
Before Donald Trump claimed he personally ended a war between India and Pakistan, he had already acknowledged that India doesn’t take instructions, not even from Washington.
In a throwback video from October 2024, Trump described Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a strong and uncompromising leader. Speaking on the Flagrant podcast hosted by Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, Trump said Modi was both the “nicest human being” and a “total killer” when it came to handling national threats. “Before him being appointed as the Prime Minister, India was very unstable,” Trump had said, adding that Modi transformed India’s stability and power projection.
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He even recalled a time when Modi, facing a threat, turned firm and said India had “defeated them for hundreds of years.” Though Trump didn’t name the adversary, the reference was widely interpreted as Pakistan.
“Modi is a nice human being and a great friend. Once, when somebody was threatening India, I said, ‘Let me help,’ but he (PM Modi) was like, ‘I will do it, I will do it, we have defeated them for hundreds of years.’” – TrumpTrump praises and mimics PM Modi. ðŸ˜ðŸ¤£ pic.twitter.com/nS0bYeX63B
— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) October 9, 2024
What Trump essentially acknowledged in 2024 was India’s firm, unilateral approach to handling Pakistan, led by a Prime Minister who needed no nudging from foreign powers. That makes his 2025 claim, that he pressured PM Modi into accepting a ceasefire, deeply contradictory.
What Is Trump Claiming Now About The India-Pakistan Conflict?
At a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, just hours before new 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports were set to take effect, US President Donald Trump claimed he had personally intervened to stop a potential nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan during the May 2025 military escalation, which followed the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s launch of Operation Sindoor.
“I said, I don’t want to make a trade deal with you… You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war,” Trump said. “I told them: we’re not going to do any deals, or we’re going to put tariffs on you that are so high, your head’s going to spin… Within five hours, it was done.”
Trump claimed he first spoke to Modi, then to Pakistan, and used trade threats to broker a ceasefire.
His remarks came a day after the White House credited his foreign policy with helping secure the truce, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the episode an example of Trump’s conflict-management strategy.
He also updated an earlier claim, now insisting that seven jets were shot down during the fighting, compared to the five he had mentioned before. “I saw they were fighting, then I saw seven jets were shot down. That’s not good. That’s a lot of jets — USD 150 million planes — and they didn’t even report the real number,” he said.
“I have stopped all of these wars. A big one would have been India and Pakistan…,” he said during a bilateral with South Korea’s President on Monday.
He added, “The war with India and Pakistan was the next level that was going to be a nuclear war… They already shot down 7 jets – that was raging. I said, ‘You want to trade? We are not doing any trade or anything with you if you keep fighting, you have got 24 hours to settle it’. They said, ‘Well, there’s no more war going on.’ I used that on numerous occasions. I used trade and whatever I had to use…”
What Actually Happened During Operation Sindoor?
The May 2025 escalation followed the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy group of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, claimed responsibility for the massacre. On June 17, the United States designated TRF as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The organisation claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians.” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar welcomed the move, calling it “a strong affirmation of India–US counter-terrorism cooperation.”
India responded by launching Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Over four days, Pakistan retaliated with drones and missiles, many of which were intercepted. On May 10, Pakistan launched ballistic missiles at Indian targets, prompting counterstrikes on Pakistani airbases.
It was only after this military tit-for-tat that Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) contacted his Indian counterpart, and an understanding was reached to halt military action.
India has consistently maintained that this decision was bilateral, and no foreign leader played a role.
What Did India Say About Trump’s Mediation Claim?
India’s response was categorical. There was no Trump-Modi phone call during the period in question, and no linkage between trade talks and military operations, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said in Parliament.
“There was no talk between the Prime Minister and President Trump from the 22nd of April, when President Trump called to convey sympathy, and the 17th of June, when he called again to explain why he could not meet,” Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha during the Operation Sindoor debate.
He reiterated in the Rajya Sabha: “From April 22 to June 16, not a single phone call took place between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi.”
Prime Minister Modi too stated in Parliament that “no world leader asked India to stop Operation Sindoor”, a direct rebuttal of Trump’s mediation narrative, without naming him.
Has Trump Made Such Claims Before?
Yes. In fact, Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for brokering peace between India and Pakistan since May 10, when he announced on social media that a “full and immediate ceasefire” had been achieved after Washington’s intervention.
In July, Trump claimed that India and Pakistan were on the brink of nuclear conflict after the Pahalgam attack, and said he had stepped in “at a crucial time.”
His latest version adds new layers, like threats of high tariffs, no trade deals, nuclear war warnings, and the “seven jets shot down” claim, but none of these assertions have been confirmed by either country.
He’s also muddled the historical context several times. In April this year, he said India and Pakistan had been fighting for “1,500 years,” and more recently described the hostility as going on “for hundreds of years… with different names.” Pakistan, however, was created in 1947 following Partition.
So, What Does This All Add Up To?
India’s position on Pakistan has been consistent and categorical: all matters, from ceasefires to diplomacy, are strictly bilateral. This principle, rooted in the Shimla Agreement (1972) and Lahore Declaration (1999), leaves no room for third-party mediation.
What’s ironic is that Trump’s own words from 2024 actually validate this approach.
In that podcast, he described India as “very unstable” before Modi, implying that its current stability and decisiveness were homegrown. He spoke of India’s fierce, independent reaction to threats. And while he may have admired Modi personally, what he really described was a country that handles its own fights.
So when Trump now claims that he forced India into a ceasefire during Operation Sindoor, he isn’t just being fact-checked by New Delhi.
He’s being contradicted by his own understanding of India.
About the Author
Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar…Read More
Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar… Read More
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