Addressing supporters in Fort Myers on Friday, Trump said he had warned both nuclear-armed countries that continued fighting would jeopardise their access to the American market. He asserted that the pressure ended hostilities, although India’s government has repeatedly rejected any connection between trade negotiations and the decision to stop military operations.
Trump described threatening tariffs of 250 per cent on both countries, presenting the proposed penalties as a decisive instrument of diplomacy. He said the two governments became angry at his warning but ultimately stopped firing.
“I’m going to put massive tariffs on both of you, 250 percent,” Trump recalled telling the countries. “And they got very upset, very angry, and they stopped shooting and the war was over.”
The president also claimed that 11 aircraft had been shot down during the confrontation. He did not provide supporting evidence or identify the aircraft, and the figure remains contested. Neither country’s publicly established account independently substantiates his latest total.
His comments came during campaigning for the November 3 congressional midterm elections, with Trump seeking to strengthen Republican support in Florida and nationally. He promoted Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds and Senator Ashley Moody while defending his administration’s economic and foreign policies.
Trump again maintained that he had settled eight wars or conflicts, arguing that tariffs and the prospect of lost trade had helped secure several agreements. His wider assertion combines different international disputes and diplomatic outcomes, and cannot be independently treated as eight equivalent wars brought to an end.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has consistently disputed his explanation of the confrontation with Pakistan. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal previously stated that trade and tariffs did not arise during exchanges between senior officials from India and the United States while military operations were under way.
New Delhi has maintained that the cessation of hostilities was negotiated directly between the directors general of military operations of India and Pakistan on May 10, 2025. Its position is that Pakistan requested the military contact and that the two sides settled the arrangements without outside mediation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi subsequently conveyed that position to Trump during a telephone conversation, according to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. Modi told the president that neither an India-US trade agreement nor American mediation had figured in the discussions leading to the halt in fighting.
Washington offered a different account at the time. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on May 10 that the two governments had agreed to an immediate ceasefire after intensive American contacts with senior figures on both sides. His statement acknowledged the decisions taken by the leaderships of India and Pakistan.
Pakistan has been more receptive than New Delhi to acknowledging Washington’s diplomatic contribution. That difference has remained central to the competing accounts of how the confrontation ended, even as Trump has continued presenting the outcome as evidence of his personal negotiating influence.
The fighting followed an April 22 attack on tourists at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, striking targets it described as terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The confrontation then escalated through exchanges involving missiles, drones and military strikes.
The May 10 understanding halted four days of intense military action, but the circumstances behind that decision have remained politically sensitive. India’s government has insisted that matters involving Pakistan, including Kashmir, must be addressed bilaterally rather than through third-party mediation.
At the Fort Myers rally, Trump linked his foreign policy assertions to a broader defence of tariffs, which he portrayed as instruments for obtaining concessions abroad and encouraging domestic manufacturing. He also argued that Republican control of Congress was essential to advancing his administration’s economic programme.
The rally was held in Fort Myers, a city on Florida’s Gulf Coast, where Trump asked voters to back his endorsed candidates.
The Florida event took place eleven days before voters were due to choose members of Congress and several state officials. Trump urged supporters to elect Donalds as governor and return Moody to the Senate, making the overseas conflict one element of a campaign speech focused principally on domestic political priorities.
