The overwhelming opinion amongst the intelligentsia is that US President Donald Trump is throwing tantrums and lying through his teeth. His repeated claims from Washington DC, Kananaskis – the venue for G7 summit – and elsewhere have come under close scrutiny internationally. The first big claim that President Trump made was to have successfully mediated between Bharat and Pakistan during the week-long conflict to avert a nuclear war. The two countries fought a limited war following the daylight murder of 26 tourists in Pahalgam of J&K by ISI-sponsored terrorists on April 25, 2025.
Yesterday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi categorically debunked President Trump’s falsified claims from the White House and outside. Neither was there any mediation, dialogue, or intervention by President Trump to pause the armed conflict. Instead, ‘Operation Sindoor’ was paused only at the specific and desperate request of the Pakistan military establishment through regular channels of communication after Bharat pounded its airbases deep.
In fact, Trump had gone ahead and tweeted to claim his leadership role in dissuading the South Asian neighbours from going to a major nuclear war. Yesterday, President Trump went a step further and pointed out that international media did not write about his ‘stellar role’ as peacenik between the arch-rivals.
On the contrary, in his 35-minute telephonic conversation with Trump, Modi unambiguously stated that the latter had no role whatsoever. Indian foreign office ‘read out’ by Secretary Vikram Misri clearly dismissed in most certain terms any mediation by President Trump.
What’s laughable is that Donald Trump repeated his bombastic claim from the Oval Office that he stopped the war even after getting an ‘earful’ from Modi. The second big claim of President Trump is that the trade deal between Bharat and the US was used as leverage to bring around Prime Minister Modi. Again, this has been outright dismissed outright by Bharat. President Trump’s suggestion that a trade deal in the works between Bharat and the US leveraged to prevent a larger war was again billed as ‘preposterous’ and ‘untrue’.
To drive home Bharat’s unambiguous position on war with terror-infested Pakistan, Modi firmly and politely declined Trump’s invite to stop over in Washington DC for a chat, citing ‘prior commitments’. One cannot recall if the American President’s invitation was ever declined by Indian leadership in the past.
Few things have been stated crystal clear to President Trump in the telephone conversation, whether he liked it or not. Bharat will not and never accept mediation with Pakistan. This is the key articulation of the country’s policy as part of its ‘strategic autonomy’ framework.
Yet another point made was that funding, sponsoring and abetting terrorism will now be considered a war against Bharat and not a Proxy war. And hence, Bharat reserves the right to hit back in a manner it deems fit. Thirdly, J&K are non-negotiable and integral to Bharat, and the only discussion could be on areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan.
In the last few weeks, Bharat exercised maximum restraint in not taking on President Trump’s claim either directly or indirectly. Yesterday’s phone call between the two leaders reflected clarity in the articulation of Bharat’s position.
On the parallel, General Asim Munir of Pakistan’s close proximity to the White House, having a closed-door lunch with President Trump, is something that clearly indicates a complete disruption in US foreign policy under a Republican Presidency.
Reports that President Trump promised hitherto denied defence technologies to Pakistan for using its territory to strike against Iran have their own implications. Old foreign policy hands have an independent analysis of the chain of events, including President Trump’s claims that have been eventually denied by Indian foreign secretary Misri.
The entire rule book in diplomatic niceties has been consigned to the dustbin by President Trump and his bunch of policy advisors from the corporate world while dealing with Presidents and Prime Ministers.
Hosting General Asim Munir has its own nuances and messaging for sure. President Trump seems to have realized that General Munir could be deployed to could push the American agenda in Asia. Using Pakistani airbases and army entry-exit points across a 1000-kilometre-long border with Iran will only expand the war theatre between Israel and Iran. Courting Pakistan at the most critical junctures happened even in the past. Hence, Trump – Munir lunch may not have come as a big surprise for some Indian security hawks.
Also, Donald Trump may be looking at a defunct and rudderless Pakistan as a ‘potential market’ for clinching transactional business deals as well as going down in human history with a ‘peace nobel’ courtesy of Islamabad’s leadership.
One big suspicion is that the American deep state may be playing dirty against Prime Minister Modi’s decisive leadership as it had attempted to deny his re-election for a third consecutive term.
The cosying up of the Pakistani military establishment with the Republican White House may have come after a successful trade deal was hammered out by Trump and the Chinese Communist Party’s iron-fisted President Xi Jinping.
In the ultimate analysis, President Trump comes out as an ‘undependable ally’ for anyone, including Bharat. Disruptions in equations with friends and foes may be treated with equanimity by the slippery Trump administration.
Rising American societal unrest that has begun to show up in demonstrations and protests may only deepen, threatening the very idea of ‘United States of America’.
American deep state and left-aligned lobbies entrenched over decades are bound to exploit the churn to their advantage. In the process, there’s huge possibility of President Trump getting cornered. In the process, Trump may lose out on Bharat.
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