For decades, Washington has played the world’s moral preacher, slapping sanctions and issuing sermons on “fighting terrorism,” all while pumping billions into Pakistan, the very heart of global jihad. Now, under Donald Trump, the mask is off. From hosting an ex-ISIS terrorist in Syria to rolling out the red carpet for Pakistan’s nuclear-blackmailing generals, America’s double standards are on full display. The same US that hounded the world over “funding wars” is happily arming and financing the Pakistani military, a force that has bled India many times, sheltered Osama bin Laden, and perfected jihad as state policy.
America’s Two Faces: Preaching morality, Practising terror partnerships
The United States has long styled itself as the “self-appointed policeman of the world,” a nation that issues moral lectures, imposes sanctions, and shames others in global forums for supporting terrorism. American presidents, diplomats, and think tanks routinely position Washington as the ultimate authority on counterterrorism, dictating to other countries how they should conduct themselves. But this moral grandstanding masks a reality far darker: for decades, the US has armed, financed, trained, and politically shielded some of the very jihadist regimes it publicly claims to be fighting.
Few examples expose this double-dealing as starkly as America’s relationship with Pakistan.
Here is a nation that harboured Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans in a fortified compound in Abbottabad, a mere 800 meters from Pakistan’s premier military academy. For years, Pakistan milked billions in US aid under the guise of being a “key ally” in the War on Terror, all while keeping bin Laden practically under military protection until US Navy SEALs killed him in 2011.
Pakistan’s military establishment has openly nurtured, trained, and provided safe haven to UN-designated terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen, and their newer proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF). These groups have orchestrated some of the deadliest terror attacks on Indian soil, from the 1990 genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits to the 2025 Pahalgam massacre, and countless assaults in between.
Despite this bloody record, Pakistan has remained one of the largest recipients of US military and economic assistance since its creation in 1947. American governments, Republican and Democrat alike, have poured weapons, fighter jets, and billions of taxpayer dollars into Islamabad’s coffers, knowing full well that a significant portion of that aid would be diverted to fund Pakistan’s jihadist infrastructure.
The US has not merely turned a blind eye to Pakistan’s role as the epicentre of global Islamic terrorism, it has been one of its chief enablers.
Trump is no outlier: He is just the latest face of a rotten policy
In June 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Pakistan’s Field Marshal Munir at the White House ignited outrage in India. Seen as an unprecedented honour for a Pakistani military leader who is not a head of state, the luncheon, which stretched over two hours, was marked by Trump’s lavish praise. He credited Munir with helping avert a nuclear war during the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and described both as “very smart people” who avoided catastrophe.
He said, “The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India]. And I want to thank PM [Narendra] Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We’re working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan. These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers. I was honoured to meet him today.”
Trump also highlighted Pakistan’s strategic importance against Iran, calling Munir “extremely influential” and “a great person.” His remarks came after the deadly April attack in Pahalgam, followed by retaliatory strikes and a tense standoff. India, however, dismissed Trump’s claim of brokering peace, crediting direct military talks instead.
Despite its history of sheltering terrorists and fueling cross-border militancy. Yet, this outreach mirrors a familiar U.S. pattern: working with Pakistan’s military for counterterrorism and regional stability, a practice dating back to the Cold War, the post-9/11 era, and recent intelligence cooperation, such as the 2021 capture of the Abbey Gate bomber.
Trump’s approach is consistent with his earlier praise for Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Hussain al-Sharaa, a former ISIS member, framed as a move to counter Iran. When asked how he finds the new Syrian President, Trump said, “Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”
JUST IN:
🇺🇲🇸🇾 President Trump speaking about Syria’s new President Al-Sharaa, who was ISIS commander and had $10 milion bounty on his head:
“Young, attractive guy, tough guy. Strong past, very strong past — fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.” pic.twitter.com/UHKQ6S0u2P
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) May 14, 2025
Far from a break in policy, Trump’s 2025 moves reaffirm Washington’s long-standing pragmatism, partnering with controversial actors to secure short-term strategic goals, even at the cost of moral consistency.
Afghanistan: The Taliban takeover
While Joe Biden took the public backlash for the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, it was Trump’s 2020 Doha Agreement that legitimised the Taliban and paved the way for their return to power. The result?
The United States spent two decades, more than $2 trillion, and hundreds of lives fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, only to walk away in 2021 after signing a deal with them, gifting billions of dollars’ worth of military assets to the very enemy it fought for 20 years.
Now, Donald Trump talks of “restoring” America’s military presence in Afghanistan, an ambition as questionable as it is ironic. After elevating a former ISIS terrorist to power in Syria and abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban, Trump has now declared a “friendship” with the Pakistan Army, arguably the largest Islamic terrorist syndicate in South Asia.
Nuclear blackmail from US soil and Washington says nothing
Asim Munir was back in the US, this time to attend the farewell ceremony of the outgoing CENTCOM chief on August 10. With Donald Trump’s backing, Munir now appears emboldened or perhaps actively encouraged by Washington to issue nuclear and dam-bombing threats against India.
At a private dinner in Tampa, Florida, on August 10, the madrasa-educated general who runs Pakistan’s foreign and security policy likened his country to a “dump truck full of gravel” capable of wrecking a far stronger India. “India is a shining Mercedes… but we are a dump truck. If the truck hits the car, who is going to be the loser?” he boasted. He warned that if India built a dam on the Indus River, Pakistan would fire ten missiles to destroy it. Munir even threatened billionaire Mukesh Ambani, bragging about a tweet he had arranged with Quranic verses to intimidate him.
Pakistani Field Marshal Munir in US, meets Centcom military leadership, and attends Kurilla farewell.
PS: So far no public inputs on Trump meet
Picture released by Pakistani military https://t.co/W0E4QVmxVr pic.twitter.com/tcATWn5EnL
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) August 10, 2025
The timing was telling: Munir’s nuclear threats were issued from US soil on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He framed Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal as a suicide weapon, claiming it could “take half the world down with it.” India condemned the remarks, but Washington and its mainstream press remained conspicuously silent, fuelling speculation that these threats were more than idle bluster.
Munir also revived his “Kashmir is our jugular vein” rhetoric, thanked Trump for his “role” in defusing Indo-Pak tensions, and was rewarded when the Trump administration designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, a move that bolsters Pakistan’s narrative by equating Baloch independence fighters with Pakistan-backed jihadist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and The Resistance Front.
Balochistan: America joins the loot
Trump also announced a US–Pakistan oil exploration deal just hours after slapping 25 percent tariffs on Indian imports. Most of Pakistan’s known oil reserves are in Balochistan, a province where the local population lives under military occupation, suffers forced disappearances, and faces systematic cultural erasure.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social, Trump said, “We have just concluded a Deal with the Country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive Oil Reserves… Who knows, maybe they’ll be selling Oil to India some day!”
China has long exploited Balochistan under its CPEC project, facing constant attacks from Baloch rebels resisting resource theft. Now the US, through a company with 60 percent Trump family stakes, is moving in to exploit the same resources, no different from Beijing’s approach.
In yet another display of blatant hypocrisy, the Trump administration has officially designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO). The move, announced on August 11 by the US Department of State, also added the Majeed Brigade as an alias to BLA’s earlier Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) status.
This decision plays straight into Pakistan Army’s hands, lending legitimacy to its long-running false narrative that Baloch freedom fighters are “terrorists.” It effectively places the Baloch independence struggle, rooted in decades of political suppression, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances, in the same category as Pakistan-backed Islamic terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and The Resistance Front (TRF). Ironically, TRF, the group behind the Pahalgam terror attack, has also been labelled a terrorist organisation by the US, yet Washington conveniently ignores the fact that such groups operate under the protection of the very Pakistan Army it now seems eager to appease.
The Osama Factor: How Washington swallowed Pakistan’s lies
The betrayal could not be clearer. For years, Pakistan milked the US for billions under the pretext of helping hunt Osama bin Laden. In reality, bin Laden lived in a fortified compound near a Pakistani military base. When US Navy SEALs finally killed him in 2011, it wasn’t thanks to Islamabad’s cooperation, it was despite it.
Yet, within years, the aid resumed.
In 2018, Trump tweeted: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit… No more!”
The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018
By 2019, he was praising Pakistan and promising better ties.
By 2025, he’s dining with Munir and cutting oil deals.
Why India won’t forget, even if America pretends to
India has faced the brunt of Pakistan’s state-sponsored jihad for over seven decades. Its people remember every soldier martyred at the border, every civilian massacred in a terror attack, every Kashmiri Pandit driven from their home.
Washington’s selective amnesia, conveniently forgetting Pakistan’s role in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the Parliament attack of 2001, and countless cross-border assaults, is driven by strategic greed. For the US, Pakistan is a pawn to be used against Iran, a bargaining chip in Afghanistan, and now a gateway to Balochistan’s oil.
America’s war on terror: Always negotiable
The truth is simple: the US has never fought terrorism, it has managed it. Groups are “terrorists” when they kill Americans; they are “allies” when they serve Washington’s interests.
Donald Trump’s latest embrace of Pakistan’s terror generals is not a personal quirk. It’s the logical continuation of a decades-old American policy of arming, funding, and protecting jihadists, as long as they can be pointed at someone else.
And when those jihadists turn on America, as they did on 9/11, Washington’s outrage lasts just long enough to rearrange the chessboard, before the cycle begins again.
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