Washington, D.C. – U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that his aggressive tariff threats were the decisive factor in ending the India–Pakistan military confrontation earlier this year, describing his intervention as part of a broader record of resolving global conflicts. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Egypt for a Middle East peace summit, Trump said his strategy of threatening punitive trade measures up to 200 per cent brought an abrupt end to what he described as a potentially nuclear confrontation between the two South Asian neighbours. “I settled a few of the wars just based on tariffs. For example, between India and Pakistan. I said, If you guys want to fight a war and you have nuclear weapons, I am going to put big tariffs on you both, like 100 per cent, 150 per cent, and 200 per cent,” Trump told reporters. “I said I am putting tariffs. I had that thing settled in 24 hours. If I didn’t have tariffs, you could have never settled that war.”
The conflict in question refers to Operation Sindoor, which escalated tensions between India and Pakistan earlier in 2025 before a ceasefire was announced in May. Trump has repeatedly asserted that his tariff threats were instrumental in bringing about the truce, adding this episode to what he claims is a growing list of conflicts he has resolved. India, however, has firmly rejected the U.S. president’s account, stating that the ceasefire resulted from direct military talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, without third-party mediation. Since May, Trump has continued to frame his trade and tariff policy as a global conflict-resolution tool.
Trump also touted his role in the Gaza ceasefire, calling it the eighth conflict he has “solved,” and hinted that he would next turn his attention to border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “This will be my eighth war that I have solved, and I hear there is a war now going on between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I said, it’ll have to wait till I get back. I am doing another one. Because I am good at solving wars,” he said. The president further suggested that his conflict-resolution record makes him a strong contender for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, expressing disappointment at not being considered for the previous year’s award. “Think about some of the wars that were going on for years. We had one going for 31, one going for 32, and one going for 37 years, with millions of people being killed in every country, and I got every one of those done, for the most part, within a day. It’s pretty good… It’s an honour to do it. I saved millions of lives,” he said.
Trump’s self-congratulatory remarks come amid renewed scrutiny of his foreign policy style, which blends economic pressure with headline-driven diplomacy. While critics in New Delhi continue to dismiss his claims regarding the India–Pakistan ceasefire, Trump appears determined to place his tariff threats at the centre of his legacy as a global dealmaker.