Trump repeats claim of preventing nuclear war as India pushes back |
US President Donald Trump has once again asserted that his intervention prevented a nuclear war between India and Pakistan during a brief but intense military standoff earlier this year, reigniting controversy and drawing sharp rebuttals from New Delhi. While Trump continues to frame the episode as a diplomatic triumph, Indian officials and strategic analysts insist that his claims are exaggerated, misleading, and disconnected from the actual dynamics of the crisis.
The confrontation between the two South Asian nuclear-armed neighbors unfolded between May 7 and May 10, following a deadly terrorist attack on April 22 in the Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir. The attack, which killed 26 people, triggered a rapid escalation in tensions, including cross-border military actions and heightened alert levels on both sides. As is often the case with India-Pakistan crises, global attention quickly turned to the possibility of escalation, given the long history of conflict and mutual mistrust between the two countries.
Trump, however, has repeatedly claimed that the situation was far more dire than acknowledged by regional actors, suggesting that Washington played a decisive role in preventing a catastrophic outcome. Speaking to reporters at the White House on December 22, Trump said, “We stopped a potential nuclear war between Pakistan and India,” adding that Pakistan’s prime minister had told him he “saved 10 million lives, maybe more.” The US president also asserted that “eight planes were shot down” and that the conflict was rapidly spiraling out of control.
These remarks echo earlier claims Trump made in a Truth Social post, issued even before India and Pakistan formally announced a........