After weeks of loudly claiming he brokered peace between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump has shifted his tone, crediting the two countries’ leaders directly for ending the hostilities.Speaking from the Oval Office after hosting Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir for lunch on Wednesday, Trump said he was “so happy that two smart people … decided not to keep going with that war … That could have been a nuclear war. Those are two nuclear powers, big ones, big, big nuclear powers, and they decided that”.Notably, Trump refrained from inserting himself as the central figure in the de-escalation – a sharp contrast to his repeated boasts since May 10, when India and Pakistan agreed to cease hostilities.In the same remarks, Trump praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and General Munir as “very smart people” who chose not to escalate a conflict that, in his words, “could have been a nuclear war”.For weeks, Trump had insisted that it was his personal diplomacy – and the lure of US trade deals – that convinced the two sides to step back. On multiple occasions, he publicly claimed, “I stopped the war”.
Change in stance after Trump calls PM Modi
That narrative was firmly rejected by India over the weeks, but was decisively put down by PM Modi on Wednesday.Foreign secretary Vikram Misri, speaking from the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, said PM Modi told Trump during a 35-minute call that there was no US mediation, no trade-based incentive, and no discussion of American involvement at any level during Operation Sindoor, India’s military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.“India has never accepted mediation nor would it ever accept it. We have complete political unanimity on this,” Misri quoted PM Modi as saying.PM Modi also underscored that the decision to end military action came after Pakistan – facing heavy damage to nine of its key air bases – requested a ceasefire through existing military communication channels.Trump’s remarks on Wednesday came just hours after he again repeated his earlier claim: “I stopped the war between Pakistan and India.” But the addition of a more diplomatic framing – placing emphasis on the decisions made by PM Modi and Munir – suggests a quiet climbdown, perhaps prompted by PM Modi’s clear pushback and India’s public disclosure of the actual sequence of events.Trump’s modified tone may not go unnoticed. As PM Modi ensured his side of the story was made public, fact-checkers, diplomats, and world leaders will likely be watching closely to see if Trump’s narrative continues to shift – or reverts to form.Either way, the message from New Delhi is now clear: the credit for ending the conflict lies with India and Pakistan – and not with a third party looking to insert itself into the frame.