US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that his administration played an important role in ending the military confrontation between India and Pakistan, repeating the assertion during a bilateral meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
As he opened discussions with Netanyahu and senior members of his delegation, Trump said he had “settled eight wars” during the first year of his second term in the White House, though he complained that he had received little recognition for these efforts.
Among the conflicts he cited were hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which he claimed to have resolved by threatening both countries with steep trade penalties.
Trump said he warned the two sides that trade would be cut off and tariffs raised sharply if fighting continued, prompting what he described as a swift resolution.
He then went on to repeat his claim regarding South Asia, stating that he had stopped the fighting between India and Pakistan.
“Settled eight wars, but we don’t know the countries. Azerbaijan… It’s good when you can say it,” Trump said.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had once expressed surprise at how quickly the conflict was resolved, claiming, “I literally settled it in one day.”
Trump further asserted that trade pressure had been central to his strategy. “They do trade. I said, ‘We’re going to cut you off from trade. No more trade,’ to both of them… Then I put 200 per cent tariffs… the next day they called. Thirty-five years of fighting, and they stopped,” he said.
Referring specifically to South Asia, Trump added, “India. How about India and Pakistan… So I did eight of them.”
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire following what he described as a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, the US president has repeated the claim more than 70 times in public remarks, meetings with foreign leaders, and overseas visits.
However, India has consistently rejected claims of third-party mediation, maintaining that the decision to halt hostilities was reached bilaterally.
The escalation began after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 civilians. This was followed by four days of intense cross-border drone and missile exchanges between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
On May 10, India and Pakistan announced an understanding to end the conflict, bringing the brief but severe military standoff to a close.