In a candid Oval Office moment, former U.S. President Donald Trump revisited his controversial yet bold diplomatic style, this time highlighting his role in cooling down the high-stakes tension between India and Pakistan during a critical phase of conflict.
Trump, who has long championed the strategic use of tariffs as a tool not just for economic leverage but also for peacemaking, claimed that his behind-the-scenes engagement during the cross-border escalations was a turning point. “Tariffs are very important for the United States,” he said. “We are a peacekeeper because of tariffs. Not only do we make hundreds of billions of dollars, but we’re a peacekeeper because of tariffs.”
Referring to the volatile situation between the two nuclear-armed nations earlier this year, Trump remarked, “I use tariffs to stop wars. If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down. And they are nuclear powers.”
He added with emphasis, “I don’t want to say exactly what I said, but what I said was very effective. They stopped. And that was based on tariffs. It was based on trade.”
While India officially denies any third-party intervention, including during its Operation Sindoor launched in retaliation for the deadly Pahalgam attack, the former U.S. president continued to assert his involvement. According to India’s version, cessation of hostilities came only after direct military-to-military communication between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed in Parliament that no foreign government influenced India’s operational decision-making.
Nonetheless, Trump maintains that his “trade diplomacy” played a quiet but crucial role. Since his May 10 social media announcement stating India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after what he called a “long night” of U.S.-facilitated talks, Trump has repeatedly asserted his contribution to defusing tensions.
He even extended his peacemaking resume to include multiple international flashpoints—Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan—stating that “at least half of them were settled through my ability at trade and because of tariffs.”
Trump concluded by saying, “If I didn’t have tariffs to throw around a little bit, you would have at least four wars raging right now, with thousands of people a day being killed.”
