Washington, November 6, 2025: Continuing to reference this year’s brief military conflict between Pakistan and India, US President Donald Trump has claimed that eight planes were “essentially” shot down during the escalation, a figure higher than his previous statements on the incident.
Speaking at the American Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday evening, Trump said, “In eight months I ended eight wars, including Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda … Pakistan and India.”
He went on to recount his version of events from the May conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. “I was in the midst of a trade deal with both of them. And then I read on the front page of a certain newspaper, I won’t mention the newspaper because it’s usually fake news, but I heard they are going to war. Eight planes, seven planes were shot down, an eighth was really badly wounded. But eight planes were shot down essentially.”
The US president reiterated his earlier claims that he had intervened to de-escalate tensions by leveraging ongoing trade negotiations.
“I’m not trading with you; we are not making any deals with you if you are at war with each other,” Trump said. “A day later, I get a call, ‘We made peace’. They stopped. I said, ‘Thank you, let’s trade’. Isn’t that great? Tariffs did that. Without tariffs that would have never happened.”
Trump has previously made similar remarks, though with varying figures, claiming at different times that five to seven planes were shot down during the conflict. He has also repeatedly praised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, both of whom he met in Washington in September.
Last month, Trump told supporters that “seven brand-new, beautiful planes were shot down” in what he described as a brief but intense military escalation between Pakistan and India.
India has consistently disputed Trump’s account, rejecting his assertion that the ceasefire resulted from American intervention or threats to halt trade negotiations. New Delhi maintains that it acted in self-defence following what it called a Pakistan-backed attack on Hindu pilgrims in occupied Kashmir — an allegation Islamabad has firmly denied, calling it “replete with fabrications.”
The confrontation between Pakistan and India in May 2025 erupted after the attack in Kashmir, triggering four days of cross-border hostilities involving fighter jets, missiles, artillery, and drones. Dozens of people were killed on both sides.
Following tit-for-tat airstrikes targeting each other’s airbases, US diplomatic pressure reportedly played a role in achieving a ceasefire on May 10.
Pakistan later claimed that its forces had shot down six Indian aircraft, including a French-made Rafale, while New Delhi acknowledged “some losses” but denied losing six jets.
In September, during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the Pakistan Air Force had turned “seven of the Indian jets into scrap and dust.”
Trump has since repeated that version, now increasing the figure to eight aircraft, saying the conflict was among those he “ended” through diplomatic intervention.
