India, Pakistan ‘Shot Down 7 Planes’: Trump Claims Gaza Ceasefire Will Mean He ‘Solved 8 Wars I

US President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday reiterated his oft-repeated claim of having “settled” conflicts, including between India and Pakistan, while also declaring “tariffs” his favourite word. He was speaking at an event with senior US military officials at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, on 30 September 2025.

‘I Stopped the War’ Between India and Pakistan

During his address to generals and admirals summoned from around the world by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Trump once again asserted that he intervened during heightened hostilities between India and Pakistan.

“India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both. In this case, I used trade… They had just shot down seven planes… I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days,” Trump said.

#WATCH | US President Donald J Trump says, “India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both… They had just shot down seven planes… I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days… The Prime Minister of… pic.twitter.com/sNvRz2OssU

— ANI (@ANI) September 30, 2025

He added that Pakistan’s leadership, including the Prime Minister and a Field Marshal, credited him for preventing escalation. “He said to a group of people that were with us… that this man saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on. That war was going to get very bad.”

This claim has been reiterated by Trump over 40 times. While New Delhi has rejected such assertions, Pakistan has often endorsed his remarks and even supported his informal push for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Gaza Peace Proposal and Nobel Aspirations

Trump also linked his Middle East peace efforts to a broader claim of brokering multiple settlements. Referring again to his interventions, Trump said: “We want to have no wars, but you have to be there. And, you know, sometimes you have to do it. I’ve settled so many wars. I’ve settled seven and yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all.”

“If this works out, we’ll have (solved) eight (wars) in eight months. That’s pretty good. Nobody’s ever done that,” he said of his Gaza plan.

#WATCH | On his Gaza peace plan proposal, US President Donald J Trump says, “If this works out, we’ll have (solved) eight (wars) in eight months. That’s pretty good. Nobody’s ever done that. Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy who didn’t do a… pic.twitter.com/YoaQvizBJ9

— ANI (@ANI) September 30, 2025

Dismissing recognition for himself, Trump added, “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy who didn’t do a damn thing… I don’t want it. I want the country to get it.”

According to him, Arab nations, Israel and Muslim-majority countries had agreed to the peace framework, leaving Hamas as the deciding factor.

‘Tariffs’ and Trade Tensions With India

In the same speech, Trump described “tariffs” as his “most beautiful” and favourite word in the English dictionary, a position he later softened after media criticism. “I got killed! So I changed it; now it’s my fifth favourite word,” he remarked.

He defended the tariffs imposed on countries including India and Brazil. “Other countries were taking advantage of us for years and years. Now we’re treating them fairly,” he said. Trump insisted tariffs were “making us very rich,” adding that “trillions” were coming into the US since he expanded duties two months ago.

India has been among the hardest hit, with tariffs of up to 50 per cent since August—half of which Trump called a “penalty” for purchasing Russian oil. He also recently told the United Nations that India and China were “the primary funders” of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Talks between Washington and New Delhi, ongoing since April, have faced repeated deadlocks. While Trump has described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “good friend,” conditions such as halting Russian oil imports and opening Indian markets remain hurdles. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has also underlined “open markets” as a precondition, while India has held its ground on protecting farming and dairy sectors.

The most recent round of discussions concluded last week, though both governments had earlier hinted a breakthrough might come by the fall season.

Trump’s List of ‘Settled Wars’

Apart from India-Pakistan and the Gaza plan, Trump claimed to have brokered peace in conflicts involving Israel-Iran, Egypt-Sudan, Rwanda-Democratic Congo, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and Cambodia-Thailand. At times, the count of “settled wars” has varied between six, seven, and eleven depending on his framing.