35 million lives saved, Pak PM Sharif's mention: Inside Trump's new claim on Operation Sindoor

Donald Trump had earlier claimed that Shehbaz Sharif had thanked him for saving 10 million lives by brokering the truce.

Published on: Feb 25, 2026, 10:59:01 IST

Written by Poorva Joshi

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US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a fresh assertion as he yet again claimed to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan back in May 2025 after the launch of India's military action, Operation Sindoor.

US President Donald Trump looks at Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. (REUTERS/File)

As Trump repeated the assertion that has been junked many a times by the Indian government, he added a fresh claim: “35 million, said the Prime Minister of Pakistan, would've died if it weren't for my involvement.” Trump had earlier claimed that Shehbaz Sharif had thanked him for saving 10 million lives by brokering the truce.

The fresh claim and the mention of Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif came during Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Wednesday. Trump yet again claimed to have solved eight wars, the conflict between India and Pakistan among them.

However, the lack of obvious punctuation and pauses during his part of the speech where he referenced Operation Sindoor led to many meanings being drawn out.

Trump also repeated the claim that India and Pakistan were at the brink of a nuclear war and that his intervention stopped it.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, a fortnight after 26 civilians were killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. The military operation was targeted at terrorists and terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and led to the killing of over 100 terrorists.

However, the following days saw a military escalation between both countries, and India and Pakistan agreed to a cessation of hostilities on May 10. Donald Trump has ever since claimed credit for brokering a truce multiple times.

However, India has always maintained that the agreement was reached bilaterally, with no third party intervention.

Trump has also linked the ceasefire agreement to trade in the past, another assertion denied by India. “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...”, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said back July 2025.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poorva Joshi
Poorva Joshi is a Senior Content Producer with nearly five years of experience in journalism. She covers Indian politics and geopolitics, with a focus on diplomatic relations, trade negotiations, and economic policy between countries. She has previously worked at India Today, CNN-News18 and India TV. Over the years, she has reported extensively on major national and international developments, including the Air India plane crash, the Pahalgam terror attack, India–US trade tensions, tensions in the Middle East, high-profile crime stories in India, multiple state Assembly elections, and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. She spearheaded the Bihar Assembly elections live blog, which drew over one million users to the Hindustan Times website. Her reporting on India–US tariff and trade tensions has consistently driven strong readership and engagement for the platform. In addition to reporting, she has spent a significant part of her career leading newsroom shifts, ideating stories, editing and fine-tuning copies, and seeing coverage through from planning to publication, alongside writing original articles. At HT, she received the Insta Award for being the top contributor to the HT News Team in November.Read More

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