Trump: Tariffs Helped Avert India-Pak Nuclear Disaster
We stopped the war. We stopped a potential disaster, a nuclear disaster, because of trade, he asserted
Washington DC: US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for averting multiple global conflicts, reiterating his belief that tariffs and trade negotiations helped prevent five out of eight wars, including the May escalation between India and Pakistan.
Speaking at a lunch with Senate Republicans at the White House’s newly renovated Rose Garden on Tuesday (local time), Trump said that tariffs were not only an economic tool but also a matter of national security.
“I mentioned eight wars, nine coming. Of the eight, five were based solely on trade and tariffs. India-Pakistan were going at it. Two nuclear powers and serious nuclear. Seven planes were shot down. They were ready to go, and I called them up. I said, ‘You go to war and we’re not doing a trade deal,’” Trump said.
He claimed that both countries questioned the relevance of trade in the context of a military standoff, to which he responded, “‘It has a lot. You are nuclear powers, and if you do it, we’re not doing a trade deal.’ Twenty-four hours later, they called me. ‘We have decided not to do it.’”
“We stopped the war. We stopped a potential disaster, a nuclear disaster, because of trade,” he asserted.
Trump’s comments referred to the escalation in May following India’s Operation Sindoor — a series of precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
Defending his use of tariffs, Trump told Republican lawmakers that they serve both economic and strategic purposes.
“Tariffs equal national security. Remember that. Tariffs equal national security,” he said, repeating the phrase for emphasis.
“They also equal wealth for our nation because we’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars in a friendly manner, given to us by nations that used to take it from us. They used tariffs on us; we never used tariffs on them because we were foolish,” he added.
He further claimed that tariffs had made the US “a wealthy country,” enabling it to support defence and global security efforts.
“The tariffs have made us a wealthy country. They’ve given us tremendous defence; they’ve given us things we can do for other countries... Really, it’s national security; it’s national defence,” Trump stated.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that his trade policies played a key role in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.
India, however, has consistently refuted such claims, maintaining its position that any issues with Pakistan — including those related to Jammu and Kashmir — are to be resolved bilaterally between the two countries.
