'It could have gone nuclear': Trump again claims he 'stopped India-Pakistan war'; doubles down on trade angle

US President Donald Trump on Friday once again claimed that he played a key role in stopping a possible war between India and Pakistan - a conflict he said might have gone nuclear if not for his intervention.Speaking to reports on Air Force One, Trump said he used trade as a tool to get both sides to halt hostilities immediately."You know, I did something that people don't talk about, and I don't talk about very much, but we solved a big problem, a nuclear problem potentially with India and with Pakistan. I spoke to Pakistan, I spoke to India, they have really great leaders, but they were going at it, and they could have gone at it nuclear," US President said.

He explained that both countries stopped their attacks after he warned them the US would suspend trade if the fighting continued."Both nuclear countries, strong nuclear countries, and I talked about trade and said, 'We're not doing trade if you guys are going to be throwing bombs at each other.' They both stopped, and I stopped that war immediately. It was going much further, and hopefully, it would not go to nuclear, but it might have gone to nuclear.

In fact, it might have gone to nuclear in the next round, but we stopped it, and I'd like to commend the leaders of both countries, Pakistan and India.

"Trump's version of events got a rare endorsement from Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide Yury Ushakov backed Trump's claim, saying his direct involvement helped end the conflict - something that even came up in a phone call between Trump and Putin."The Middle East was discussed, as well as the armed conflict between India and Pakistan, which has been halted with the personal involvement of President Trump," Ushakov said.The US president’s comments, however, stirred diplomatic pushback. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is leading an all-party delegation to the US, said they addressed Trump’s mediation claims directly with US Vice President JD Vance."The meeting with Vice President Vance was outstanding, very good, very clear. I think we made our position amply clear on this question of mediation, and Vice President Vance fully understood our points," Tharoor said.Trump has made similar claims in the past, especially after India carried out Operation Sindoor -- precision strike on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) on May 7, in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.India later responded to Pakistani military aggression with airbase strikes. Eventually, tensions eased after Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) contacted his Indian counterpart and agreed to stop further action.