US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that he ended the conflict between India and Pakistan in May last year, asserting that he brought hostilities to a halt after eight aircraft were shot down, even as Indian officials consistently deny any third-party intervention in the truce.
Trump made the remarks in a Thursday interview with Fox News, saying he had “put out eight wars, eight and a quarter,” including what he described as a near-escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump pushes Nobel Peace Prize narrative
Trump said that “in theory” a Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded for ending each war, framing his intervention across multiple conflicts as a major achievement. “Some of these wars were going on for 30 years. India, Pakistan were ready to go at it big … and I got it stopped … eight planes were shot down.” He added that his actions saved “millions and millions of lives.”
He also referenced other conflicts, including a decades-long quarrel between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and said he had ended those as well. Trump also used the moment to revisit his long-standing demand for the Nobel Peace Prize. He said he did not want to boast, but added that he could not think of “anybody in history” more deserving.
He said a Nobel Prize should be awarded for every war that is stopped, though he insisted his focus was on lives saved, not awards.
“Whether people like Trump or don’t like Trump, I settled eight wars- big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32, 31, 28, 25 years. Some just getting ready to start like India and Pakistan where eight jets were shot out in the air and I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons.
I can’t think of anybody in the history that should get the Nobel Prize more than me and I don’t want to be bragging but nobody else settled wars. You should get the Nobel Prize for every war you stopped. These were major wars, these were wars nobody thought could be stopped… I don’t care about that; I care about saving lives. I’ve saved tens of millions of lives.”
India rejects US mediation claim
Indian government officials have repeatedly rejected Trump’s assertion that the United States brokered a ceasefire in May 2025 after Operation Sindoor, a four-day cross-border military crisis that began on May 7 following the Pahalgam attack.
New Delhi has maintained that the India-Pakistan understanding reached on May 10 was negotiated directly through established military and diplomatic channels and was not mediated by a third party.
Diplomatic and domestic implications
Trump’s claims come as Washington navigates complex diplomatic relationships in South Asia, including trade negotiations with India that have encountered delays. The repeated assertion of personal credit for resolving conflicts has drawn attention from international policymakers and commentators, some of whom note that Trump’s tally of “wars stopped” includes disputes that were not formally wars.
India rejects all third-party mediation claims
India and Pakistan were locked in a brief but intense military confrontation in May, triggered by a terror attack in the Pahalgam valley of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, which claimed 26 innocent lives.
Following the terror attack, India responded with Operation Sindoor, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and over 100 terrorists, including high-value targets like Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf, and Mudasir Ahmed, were successfully eliminated in the operation.
New Delhi has maintained that, inflicted by this heavy damage, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) called the Indian DGMO, and both sides agreed to stop all firing and military action on land and in the air and sea with effect from May 10.
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