US President Donald Trump doubled down on his self-proclaimed role as a global peacemaker during a fiery speech at the America Business Forum in Miami on November 5, 2025, crediting his tariff threats with forcing India and Pakistan into a sudden truce amid their May 2025 border clash. "In eight months, I ended eight wars... Pakistan and India," Trump declared to thunderous applause, recounting how he allegedly halted escalating hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors by dangling trade deals. The claim, repeated over 60 times since the ceasefire, has become a staple of his "peace through strength" narrative—but it continues to irk New Delhi, which insists the resolution was bilateral, not born of American arm-twisting.
Trump painted a vivid, if embellished, picture of the crisis: "I was in the midst of trade deals with both... then I read they were going to war. Seven planes shot down, the eighth badly wounded." He described phoning the leaders: "You're nuclear powers—I'm not trading if you're at war." According to Trump, a day later came the capitulation: "We made peace... Thank you. Let's do trade." He tied it to his broader tariff strategy, quipping, "Without tariffs, that would never have happened," before listing other "wins" like brokering peace between Israel-Iran, Egypt-Ethiopia, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and even Cambodia-Thailand—dismissing the UN as irrelevant. "Nobody messes with us," he added, spotlighting recent pacts with China, Japan, and Malaysia as economic triumphs.
The May 2025 flare-up stemmed from the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in a brazen assault blamed on Pakistan-backed militants. India retaliated with Operation Sindoor on May 7, launching precision missile and drone strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and PoK, destroying key infrastructure and prompting fierce cross-border exchanges. Over four tense days, artillery duels, air raids, and reported dogfights claimed at least 66 lives—51 in Pakistan alone, including civilians—and raised global alarms of nuclear escalation. By May 10, after what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called "a long night of talks," both sides agreed to a full ceasefire, halting firing on land, air, and sea. Trump announced it triumphantly on Truth Social, claiming US mediation sealed the deal, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar confirming an "understanding" but stressing India's anti-terror stance.
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Pakistan's leadership, including PM Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir, openly thanked Washington for its "nudge," crediting backchannel diplomacy that began with Rubio's 4 a.m. call to Munir on May 10. Islamabad highlighted US pressure on trade and water-sharing (India had suspended the Indus Waters Treaty) as key levers.
Yet India has stonewalled Trump's version, with PM Narendra Modi telling him directly in a June 18 call that the truce resulted from direct military-to-military talks—no third-party involvement or trade incentives discussed. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri reiterated: "Kashmir is bilateral; no mediation." Analysts see Trump's boasts as grating on India's sovereignty nerves, especially post-2019 Balakot, where New Delhi rejected external fixes. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned if this "opened doors to third-party mediation," while experts like Indrani Bagchi lamented it as a "betrayal" after India's lonely anti-terror fights.
Trump's flair for hyperbole isn't new—recall his 2019 "Kashmir solution" offer, politely rebuffed—but this iteration ties diplomacy to dollars, aligning with his tariff-heavy foreign policy that's boosted US coffers by $151 billion this year. As he eyes 2026 midterms, these tales burnish his strongman image, but they strain the US-India partnership, vital for countering China.
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