Washington: Former US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he helped prevent a potential war between India and Pakistan by threatening to impose heavy trade tariffs, asserting that “seven planes were shot down” during the heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations in May.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump said his administration used trade pressure to de-escalate what he described as a situation “on the brink of a nuclear conflict.”
“I’ve ended, you know, eight wars that we just mentioned. Five of them were ended because of tariffs. The threat of tariffs, for example, kept India and Pakistan—two nuclear nations—from going at it,” Trump said.
“They were going at it—seven planes were shot down. That’s a lot. And they were going at it. That could have been a nuclear war,” he added.
Trump’s remarks refer to the flare-up following India’s Operation Sindoor, a series of precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
The former President also claimed that his direct intervention, including the threat of imposing a 200 per cent tariff, led to a swift de-escalation.
“I said to India and Pakistan pretty much the same thing: ‘If you’re going to fight each other, I won’t do business with you. We’ll put a 200 per cent tariff—it’ll make it impossible for you to do business,’” Trump stated.
According to Trump, both sides quickly backed down. “‘No, no, no,’ they said. And after 24 hours, I settled the war. I settled it through trade,” he claimed.
Trump has repeatedly credited his trade and tariff policies for preventing conflicts, including his alleged role in defusing India-Pakistan tensions.
However, India has consistently rejected these claims, maintaining that all issues with Pakistan, including those related to Jammu and Kashmir, are strictly bilateral matters to be resolved without external mediation.
