Washington, DC – In a bold assertion from the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump has once again credited his tariff policies with defusing a volatile military standoff between India and Pakistan earlier this year, framing economic leverage as a cornerstone of American diplomacy.
Speaking on October 6, 2025, Trump elaborated on his earlier statements, linking the May ceasefire between the two nuclear powers directly to the threat of severed trade relations. “If I didn’t have the power of tariffs, you would have at least four of the seven wars raging,” he declared, specifically citing the India-Pakistan crisis. “If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down.”
Trump emphasized that his intervention not only generated substantial revenue for the United States but also served as a stabilizing force. “I don’t want to say exactly what I said, but what I said was very effective,” he added. “Not only did we make hundreds of billions of dollars, but we’re a peacekeeper because of tariffs.”
The conflict erupted in May following India’s launch of Operation Sindoor, a precision strike on terrorist camps inside Pakistan. The operation was retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 civilian lives. Intense cross-border exchanges ensued, culminating in the downing of aircraft on both sides. A fragile truce was declared on May 10, which Indian officials have consistently described as a bilateral agreement, rejecting any external mediation.
Trump’s narrative, however, paints a more interventionist picture. Just last week, he recounted phoning leaders in both nations amid the four-day escalation. “India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both… They had just shot down seven planes… I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days,” he said.
Bolstering his account, Trump referenced a recent White House meeting with Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to the president, Munir publicly acknowledged his pivotal role. “He said to a group of people that were with us… that this man saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on. That war was going to get very bad… I loved the way he said it,” Trump recounted.
As the US navigates its global influence amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, Trump’s comments underscore a strategy where trade tools double as instruments of peace. Yet, they also highlight persistent diplomatic divergences, with New Delhi maintaining its stance on independent resolutions.
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