350% tariff threat prevented nuclear war between India and Pakistan: Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has again claimed that he personally stopped India and Pakistan from entering a nuclear conflict by threatening both nations with massive trade penalties.

His remarks come months after Pakistan shot down seven Indian warplanes including three Rafale aircraft in May 2025.

In a special address at the Saudi investment conference in Washington, President Trump asserted that he warned New Delhi and Islamabad of crippling economic repercussions during an earlier period of heightened hostility. “You know, I was talking about the different wars, and it’s, look, India, Pakistan, they were going to go out with nuclear weapons. I said, that’s okay, you can go at it, but I’m putting a 350 percent tariff on each country, no more trade with the United States.” “No, no, you can’t do that,” Trump claimed either of the sides said.

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“I said, I’m going to do it. Come back to me and I’ll take it down. But you, I’m not going to have you guys shooting nuclear weapons at each other, killing millions of people and having the nuclear dust floating over Los Angeles. I’m not going to do it.”

“They said, we don’t like that. I said, I don’t care if you like it or not,” Trump said. “So I was all set. I told a 350 percent tariff to settle that war. If you, if you don’t, we’ll make a nice trade deal,” he added.

“Now, no other president would have done that. Another guy would have, like Joe Biden doesn’t even know what countries we’re talking about. He wouldn’t have any idea. There’d be no tariffs on anything. Just the whole world would go to hell,” Trump said.

“But no, I use tariffs to settle all these, not all of them. Five of the eight wars were settled because of the economy, because of trade, because of tariffs. I’ll tell you what the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Shehbaz Sharif) called me,” Trump said, further quoting him, “Thank you very much.”

“He actually said, I saved millions. And he said in front of Susie, he said President Trump saved millions and millions of lives.”

“And I got a call from Prime Minister Modi saying, we’re done. I said, you’re done with what? ‘We’re not going to go to war’.