Washington (TDI): US President Donald Trump has increased his estimate of aircraft downed during the May 2025 conflict between Pakistan and India, now saying that 10 planes were shot down during the brief military escalation.
Speaking in an interview with Fox Business, Trump made the remarks while discussing his trade policies and the use of tariffs as a diplomatic tool.
As the host praised his “reciprocity policy,” Trump said he had helped settle eight conflicts, claiming that at least six of them were resolved through the leverage of tariffs.
“In other words, I said, ‘if you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs because I don’t want to see people getting killed,’” he said. “And they said, ‘what does that have to do with it?’ I said, ‘you’re going to be charged.’”
Referring to the India-Pakistan standoff, Trump added, “Like India and Pakistan that would’ve been a nuclear war, in my opinion. They were really going at it. Ten planes were shot down. They were going at it.”
Over the past several months, Trump has repeatedly mentioned that aircraft were downed during the conflict, though he has not specified which side suffered the losses. His estimate has gradually increased, from five jets initially, to seven in October, eight in November, and now ten.
Read More: Trump Claims He Prevented Another Pak-India War
During the interview, Trump also cited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as having thanked him for helping prevent a larger catastrophe. “He said I saved at least 10 million lives when I got them to stop fighting,” Trump claimed, arguing that without tariff pressure, the ceasefire would not have materialised.
He similarly referenced tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying US involvement contributed to easing that decades-long dispute, including a peace initiative in August 2025.
Read More: Trump Says Seven ‘Beautiful Planes’ Shot Down in Pak-India Clash
In the same conversation, Trump criticised previous US administrations’ trade policies, calling every president over the past 50 years “bad on trade,” before adding, “But I’m not bad on trade. I’m really good on trade.”
