US President Donald Trump just won’t let some bygones be bygones.
On Tuesday (US time), the American commander-in-chief reiterated one too many points of discussion he has already spoken at length about on several occasions. Yet again, one of these mentions happened to be about the yesteryear India-Pakistan conflict, which the POTUS has repeatedly claimed to have resolved through his tariff threats.
Longest SOTU still brings up India-Pak claims
On February 24, the Republican politician delivered the longest State of the Union address made by any president since the American Presidency Project began keeping records in 1964.
Given the extent of the speech, the MAGA leader had a sea full of topics to bring up. But the POTUS chose to paint a rosy picture of the USA with his own administration at the helm.
Part of that narrative was built on the foundation of taking credit for solving multiple global conflicts, including what Trump says could’ve have turned into a “nuclear war” between neighbouring countries India and Pakistan last year.
“In my first 10 months, I ended 8 wars.. Pakistan and India would have had a nuclear war,” he said during his Tuesday State of the Union address.
Expanding his “peacemaker” stance, he added an even more explosive claim: his purported intervention averted what could have been a fatal end for Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “35 million people said the Prime Minister of Pakistan would have died if it were not for my involvement,” Trump pressed.
His latest remarks work as an extension of the rhetoric he’s long built around the India-Pak discussion, suggesting that he brokered peace between the countries after India.
As part of the May 7 Operation Sindoor in 2025, India targeted Pakistan-based terror infrastructures as a response to the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which led to deaths of 26 tourists.
#WATCH | Addressing the 2026 State of the Union, United States President Donald Trump says, "… In my first 10 months, I ended eight wars… Pakistan and India would have had a nuclear war. 35 million people said the Prime Minister of Pakistan would have died if it were not for… pic.twitter.com/GnrgJKtjID
— ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2026
While Trump continues to assume credit for ending the clash, New Delhi has firmly asserted that a ceasefire was agreed upon after Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operation contacted his Indian counterpart.
Even John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor from 2018 to 2019 previously said, “If you ask most Indian officials, and certainly their press, they’re outraged that Trump claims he had any influence on the thing at all.”
Trump maintains he used tariffs to solve wars
Trump even pressed the same issue after his Board of Peace attendance last week. The POTUS said he had threatened to impose a staggering level of 200% tariffs on both South Asian nations if they didn’t stop their military advances against each other.
He proclaimed, “Tariffs have likewise been used to end 5 of the 8 wars I have settled. I have settled 8 wars, whether you like it or not, including India- Pakistan, big ones, which could have been nuclear.”
Much like what he said on Tuesday, he added then, “The Prime Minister of Pakistan said yesterday at the Peace Board meeting that President Trump could have saved 35 million lives by getting us to stop fighting. They were getting ready to do some bad things.”
Contrary to India’s rejection of the claims that Trump played any role in the May 2025 ceasefire, Pakistan has continued to stroke the US president’s ego.
At the inaugural Board of Peace meeting, Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif again mounted praises about Trump, calling him a “man of peace” and the “saviour of people of South Asia.” He’s previously even nominated the MAGA leader for the Nobel Peace Prize.