Intending to repeat his claim of having used tariffs as a tool to “stop the war” between India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump made a gaffe and referred to India as “Iran”.

While responding to a question about tariffs, the US President said that without the levies, America would not have national security.

He then intended to cite an example to highlight how important tariffs are as a ‘tool’. Trump wished to refer to his 200 per cent tariff threat to India and Pakistan, which he claims was the reason that “stopped the war” between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

However, what Trump actually stated was: “As an example, if you look at Pakistan and Iran. I was in the midst of negotiating a trade deal with, actually, with Iran, and Pakistan was going to be in line. And because of tariffs, they all want to negotiate much differently. We’ll make it a good deal. And then I heard they’re shooting at each other, and I said during one of my conversations, ‘Are you guys going to go to war?’ Two nuclear powers we are thinking about.”

A video of Trump’s mistaken reference has gone viral on social media.

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Trump then mentioned how he threatened to impose a “200 per cent tariff” and stop them from doing any business in the US. “I said it to both of them. Within 24 hours, the war ended. That would have been a nuclear war,” he added.

The US President’s mistake was remarkably noticeable as Iran is not a “nuclear power”.

He referred to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s latest visit to the White House, which took place last month, and stated how he hailed the US President. “The prime minister of Pakistan said that ‘that man saved many millions of lives’ in front of a whole group of people because he thought it was going to be war,” Trump said.

“But when it came to war or having to pay massive tariffs, the tariffs overrode. That’s why it’s so important,” Trump said in his explanation.

He said that it is not just the money; the US is also taking in trillions of dollars. “Not only the money, the power to keep peace, the power to be used for good, is enormous. But a lot of people didn’t understand tariffs. It’s also made us very rich,” Trump said.

India’s firm stance

While Trump has repeated his claim of having “stopped” the India-Pakistan war more than 50 times, New Delhi has maintained its firm stance on the matter, denying any third-party involvement in reaching the ceasefire understanding with Pakistan in the four-day conflict after Operation Sindoor.

India has stated that the decision to reach a ceasefire understanding was made after Pakistan’s director general of military operations (DGMO) reached out to his Indian counterpart.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had again clarified in July that the ceasefire was reached with negotiations between the DGMOs of the two countries and not any trade talk, as claimed by Trump.

“The record of what happened at that time was very clear and the ceasefire was something which was negotiated between the DGMOs of the two countries,” Jaishankar said, adding that, “I will leave it at that.”

Later in the month, while addressing the Lok Sabha during a debate on Operation Sindoor, the EAM told the House that there was no call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump between April 22 and June 17.

Operation Sindoor was carried out by the Indian Armed Forces on May 7 in response to the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

“I want to make two things very clear. One, at no stage in any conversation with the United States was there any linkage with trade and what was going on,” Jaishankar said in Lok Sabha.

During the same debate, the next day, PM Modi also made a clear statement, “No leader in the world asked India to stop military action.”