President Donald Trump of the United States reaffirmed on August 27, 2025, that he personally prevented a possible nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year.
During a White House cabinet meeting, Trump recalled talks he said he had with Pakistani officials and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he called a “very terrific man”.
Trump reportedly told Pakistan explicitly that economic agreements with the United States would be jeopardised if it continued to engage in conflicts with India.
He said that he forced Islamabad to de-escalate by warning them that if they continued their escalating attitude, they would face punishing penalties or the termination of trade talks. Trump made the bold claim that a nuclear exchange was now imminent but that the crisis was resolved in “five hours” thanks to his intervention.
Additionally, Trump went into further detail about his prior versions of the narrative, stating that fighter jets were shot down during the fighting, but this time he increased the number from five to “seven or more.” He said that the actual scope of the conflict was not adequately revealed and voiced his shock over the “USD 150 million planes” that were lost.
Trump emphasised his role as a conflict-stopper, telling reporters that he had stopped wars on multiple occasions by using trade power and that tensions between India and Pakistan, which he called “the next level that was going to be a nuclear war,” were among the biggest threats he had avoided.
Trump claims that when emotions were at their highest, he personally addressed both sides and told them to stop the fighting right away or risk terrible trade repercussions. He asserted that the parties had ended hostilities within 24 hours of his ultimatum.
Trump said that this action stopped two strong regional adversaries from engaging in a deadly nuclear exchange. Citing his management of South Korea and other places as further instances, he added that his foreign policy strategy—using trade as a bargaining tool instead of military force—has proven successful in preventing wars worldwide.
The Pahalgam terror act on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 civilian lives and was carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), a front organisation of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, serves as the context for Trump’s assertions.
Tensions between Islamabad and New Delhi skyrocketed in response to the incident, and in early May, India launched a counterterrorism operation known as “Operation Sindoor” that targeted militant bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK).
Days of fighting, including cross-border skirmishes and aerial clashes, resulted from Pakistan’s military retaliation. The eventual truce, which was declared shortly after on May 10, was directly attributed by the White House to Trump’s intervention.
However, the idea of any third-party mediation in the case has been continuously denied by India. The ceasefire deal was negotiated bilaterally by India’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and his Pakistani counterpart, according to Indian officials.
India has reaffirmed its long-standing stance that the India-Pakistan conflict is still solely a bilateral matter, and New Delhi views the de-escalation as the outcome of professional military-to-military communication rather than any outside intervention.
On June 17, 2025, Washington officially classified The Resistance Front (TRF) as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially classified Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity in response to the terror assault and the crises that followed. As part of larger counterterrorism measures, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that TRF’s overt involvement in the Pahalgam slaughter made this designation necessary.
S Jaishankar, India’s minister of external affairs, hailed the action as a “strong affirmation of India–U.S. counter-terrorism cooperation.” He reaffirmed that TRF is a front for the well-known terror organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which is based in Pakistan, and he applauded Washington for acknowledging this connection.
In the end, Trump’s insistence on a transactional, trade-centered approach to diplomacy is evident in his repeated claims of preventing a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan.
New Delhi’s denial of such intervention highlights the disparity in narratives between the United States and India on this delicate issue, even though the White House has described his activities as crucial in ending the conflict.
However, the crisis and its resolution exposed the dangers of Pakistani militancy and the constant threat of escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours to the attention of the world once again.
