October 30, 2025
NEW DELHI – US President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again sought to claim credit for stopping the military conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year. He reiterated his claims of intervening in the fight between the two nuclear-armed nations, and added that war planes were shot down during the conflict in May.
He claimed that he personally intervened to stop the two nuclear-armed neighbours from going to war, saying he called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and told him the US would not pursue a trade deal with India if hostilities continued.
“I called Prime Minister Modi and said, we can’t make a trade deal with you. No, no, we must make a trade deal. I said, no, we can’t. You’re starting a war with Pakistan. We’re not going to do it. And then I called Pakistan and said, we’re not going to do trade with you because you’re fighting with India. They said, no, no, you should let us fight. They both said that,” Trump said.
Trump said both countries eventually “understood” and stopped the fighting within two days.
“After literally two days, they called up and they said, we understand, and they stopped fighting. How is that? Isn’t that amazing? Now, you think Biden would have done that? I don’t think so…,” the US President said.
Shortly after the conflict, the US signed a trade deal with Pakistan, but negotiations with India were stopped after New Delhi didn’t agree on certain terms of the deal.
India also refused to acknowledge Trump’s role in the ceasefire, asserting that the cessation of the fighting was directly negotiated by the armies of the two countries.
After days of hostilities in the India-US ties that also saw Trump imposing 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports to the US, both countries resumed trade talks after a social media exchange between Trump and Modi.
Now that a deal is expected to be signed soon, Trump has praised Modi, publicly expressing his love for the Indian leader and praising his looks.
“Prime Minister Modi is the nicest-looking guy. He’s a killer. He’s tough as hell…,” Trump remarked.
In the same breath, Trump heaped praise on Pakistan’s leadership, calling the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “a great guy” and its Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir a “great fighter.”
He also remarked that he had read about “seven planes being shot down” — apparently echoing Pakistan’s claim of shooting down Indian fighter jets during the May conflict but stopped short of clarifying whether the aircraft were Indian or Pakistani.
Trump also targetted his predecessor Joe Biden, claiming the former US President would not have been able to prevent such a conflict.