Trump Claims Tariff Threat Stopped India-Pakistan War

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- Trump said at Camp David that he threatened 250% tariffs on India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, and that "a day later they called and said, 'We will not go to war.'"
- Trump asserted 11 planes were shot down in the India-Pakistan conflict — a figure disputed by New Delhi.
- India has consistently maintained the May 10 ceasefire came after Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations contacted his Indian counterpart, and has rejected any third-party role.
- Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif told Trump he saved 50 million lives by stopping the war between the two nuclear powers.
- Trump also claimed he has stopped eight wars during his presidency and said Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a deal to end the Ukraine war.
- Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7 of last year to strike terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, and was paused on May 10 at Pakistan's request.
Why it matters: India's repeated denial directly contradicts Trump's central credit claim, and the 11-planes figure remains unverified — leaving the US-India diplomatic narrative contested despite Trump's assertion that tariff threats alone prevented war between two nuclear powers.



