Trump says he stopped Pakistan-India war with trade threat to Modi

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday once again recounted his alleged role in preventing a nuclear war between Pakistan and India during their May conflict.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said he used trade pressure to de-escalate tensions, claiming he directly told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to halt the war or risk losing trade benefits with the United States.

Trump also repeated his earlier remarks about the scale of the conflict, stating that seven fighter jets were shot down, each worth around $150 million, while suggesting the actual number might have been higher than reported.

Drawing parallels to his diplomatic approach with Russia and Ukraine, Trump said, “Just like India and Pakistan were going to end up in a nuclear war if I didn’t stop them. I saw they were fighting, then I saw seven jets shot down. That’s a lot of jets, you know, $150 million planes shot down. Even more than that, they didn’t even report the real number.”

He added that after seeing the situation escalate, he spoke to Modi and questioned him about the conflict with Pakistan. Trump claimed he also contacted Pakistani officials, though he did not specify whom.

According to Trump, he then warned India of significant tariffs and a suspension of trade deals if hostilities continued,  “I said, I don’t want to make a trade deal. I’ll put tariffs so high, I don’t give a damn, your head’s going to spin.”

Trump claimed that after his intervention and phone calls with both countries, the conflict “ended within five hours.”