US President Donald Trump, flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaks during a press conference at the White House, following the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs, in Washington, DC, US, February 20, 2026. | Photo credit: KEVIN LAMARQUE
He said his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi “is, I would say, great.” Trump then repeated claims that he had stopped the war between India and Pakistan last summer using tariffs.
“I also stopped the war between India and Pakistan. As you know, 10 planes were shot down. That war was nuclear and probably nuclear. And yesterday the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that President Trump saved 35 million lives by stopping it,” Trump said.
“And I did it largely with tariffs. I said, ‘Look, you’re going to fight, that’s fine, but you’re not going to do business with the United States, and you’re going to pay a 200 percent tariff on every country.’ And they called and said, ‘we made peace,'” Trump said.
Earlier this month, as the US and India announced that they had reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, Trump issued an Executive Order eliminating punitive 25 percent tariffs imposed on India for purchasing Russian oil, with the US President noting New Delhi’s ‘commitment’ to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and buying US energy products.
Under the trade deal, Washington will charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, reducing it from 25 percent to 18 percent.
When asked about the India deal, Trump said “nothing changes.”
“Nothing will change. They will pay tariffs, and we will not pay tariffs. So dealing with India is them paying tariffs. This is a reversal of what it used to be, as you know, India and I think Prime Minister Modi is actually a great gentleman, a great man, but he was much smarter than the people he was against in terms of the United States, he ousted us. So we made a deal with India. It’s a fair deal now, and we don’t pay tariffs to them, and they pay tariffs. We’ve done a little bit of a pivot,” Trump said.
“The deal with India is done… all the deals are done, we’re just going to do it” in a different way.
Earlier, Trump said he was using tariffs to end the war between India and Pakistan as he lashed out at the Supreme Court over its decision to strike down his sweeping tariffs imposed on countries around the world.
“Tariffs have also been used to end five of the eight wars that I have settled. I have settled eight wars, like it or not, including India, Pakistan, major wars, nuclear, could have been nuclear,” Trump said at a press conference on Friday, just hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan said yesterday at the big meeting that we had a peace council. He said yesterday that President Trump could have saved 35 million lives by making us stop fighting. They were getting ready to do some bad things. But they have given us great national security, these tariffs have done that,” he said.
Published on February 21, 2026
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