US President Donald Trump has once again said his administration helped prevent a ,asserting it defused tensions “through trade”.
“In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually,” Trump said on Friday evening during a private dinner with Republican lawmakers at the White House.
Trump did not specify whether the aircraft belonged to India or Pakistan. The US president’s remarks have rekindled attention on the escalation that had raised fears of wider conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump has once again said his administration helped prevent a major military conflict between India and Pakistan, asserting it defused tensions “through trade”. In remarks highlighting what he described as his foreign policy success, Trump said, “We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious – India and Pakistan, that was going on.”
Trump was referring to the heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in 2025, following the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent airstrikes.
Calling the episode a potential flashpoint for nuclear conflict, Trump said, “These are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other… and it was getting bigger and bigger.” He claimed his administration stepped in diplomatically, using economic leverage to encourage de-escalation.
“We said, you guys want to make a trade deal. We’re not making a trade deal if you’re going to be throwing around weapons – and maybe nuclear weapons,” Trump recalled. “Both very powerful nuclear states.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for helping defuse what he describes as an imminent war between India and Pakistan in 2025. Reiterating this on Monday, he said his administration played a key role in cooling tempers between the two nuclear-armed nations by leveraging trade negotiations as diplomatic pressure.
“We’ve been very successful in settling wars,” Trump said, citing the India-Pakistan crisis alongside other global conflicts. “You have India and Pakistan. You have Rwanda and the Congo – that was going on for 30 years. India, by the way, Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week, the way that was going. That was going very badly, and we did that through trade.”
The Pahalgam terror attack resulted in the deaths of 26 people and was carried out by militants backed by Pakistan. The attack occurred during the visit of US Vice President JD Vance to India, prompting swift and forceful retaliation from New Delhi.
On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision airstrikes targeting nine major terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan attempted to strike back using drones and missiles aimed at Indian cities, but these were all intercepted by India’s air defence systems, resulting in no casualties or damage.