Trump admits “10 million lives saved” was Pakistan’s narrative

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump is chest-thumping again, claiming he “stopped” India and Pakistan from going nuclear and “saved at least 10 million people”. 

But in the same breath, he has also revealed the real problem with his story: the “10 million lives” line is not a verified assessment, it is a quote he attributes to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

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Trump has said Sharif “thanked” him for saving “at least 10 million lives”, which is being read in New Delhi as US President putting Islamabad’s version on a pedestal and calling it proof.

Over multiple retellings, Trump has thrown out figures about jets being downed, including the “six or seven planes came down” line, and later versions citing “seven” jets. The number changed to eight now.

Those jet-loss claims, in India’s view, sit in the same bucket as Pakistan’s loud, unverified assertions during the conflict. Trump has provided no clear basis for the numbers, and India has not endorsed his versions.

Against this backdrop, India’s official position has been steady. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveyed to Trump that there was no US mediation in the ceasefire, and that there were no talks on an India-US trade deal in that period. India has also rejected the idea that trade was used as leverage in de-escalation.

Operation Sindoor was launched to target terror infrastructure in Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack, and India has projected it as a decisive counter-terror action executed on India’s terms.

Modi has also said no foreign leader asked India to stop Operation Sindoor, a point the BJP has used to argue that Trump’s “I stopped them” boast is performative, not factual.

Yet, domestically, Trump’s claims have become political ammunition. The Congress has repeatedly demanded that Modi respond to Trump’s statements on mediation and the ceasefire, framing the Prime Minister’s silence at various points as damaging.

This is where the narrative turns sharper for the ruling side. BJP leaders have accused the Congress of effectively amplifying an adversary-friendly line by treating Trump’s assertions as a credible basis to corner the government, rather than challenging the premise and source of those claims.

In the BJP’s telling, the contradiction is glaring: India’s armed forces execute a counter-terror operation, India’s government rejects mediation, and then the opposition builds pressure at home using a US President’s claim that now openly leans on what Pakistan’s Prime Minister allegedly told him.

Trump’s “10 million lives” flourish is now being cited by government supporters as the giveaway. If your “proof” is Pakistan’s Prime Minister praising you, the claim stops sounding like statesmanship and starts sounding like political marketing, powered by Islamabad’s preferred framing.

That is also why Trump’s remarks have triggered a fresh round of accusations that he is not describing a neutral mediation effort, but recycling Pakistan’s messaging in a form that flatters him.