'Nothing Changes': Trump's Big Claim On India-US Trade Deal After Tariff Blow

The India-US trade "deal is on," said Donald Trump, even as the United States Supreme Court ruled that the American president's sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal. Speaking to reporters at the White House, the US leader emphasised that his relationship with India is 'fantastic' and there won't be any changes in the trade pact between Washington and New Delhi.

"I think my relationship with India is fantastic, and we're doing trade with India. India pulled out of Russia. India was getting its oil from Russia. And they pulled way back at my request, because we want to settle that horrible war where 25,000 people are dying every month," Trump said after the US Supreme Court verdict striking down his tariff policy.

When asked if the Supreme Court verdict will affect the trade deal with India, Trump said, "Nothing changes."

"They'll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So the deal with India is they pay tariffs. This is a reversal of what it used to be, as you know, India and I think Prime Minister Modi is a great gentleman, a great man, actually, but he was much smarter than the people that he was against in terms of the United States, he was ripping us off. So we made a deal with India. It's a fair deal now, and we are not paying tariffs to them, and they are paying tariffs. We did a little flip," Trump said.

"The India deal is on...all the deals are on, we're just going to do it" in a different way.

Trump stressed his bond with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "great" and then went on to repeat the claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan last summer using tariffs.

"I also stopped the war between India and Pakistan. As you know, there were 10 planes were shot down. That war was going and probably going nuclear. And just yesterday, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved 35 million lives by getting them to stop," he 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 per cent tariff, each country'. And they called up and they said, 'we have made peace'," the US leader added.

Earlier, Trump said he used tariffs to end the war between India and Pakistan, as he lashed out at the Supreme Court for its decision to strike down his sweeping tariffs imposed on countries around the world.

US-India Trade Deal

Earlier this month, the US and India announced they reached a framework for an interim agreement on trade after Trump issued an executive order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil and reducing the reciprocal duties on New Delhi from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.

The US president claimed that New Delhi committed to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and instead purchase American energy products.

US Top Court Verdict

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, denigrating individual justices as he vowed to continue a global trade war that has kept the world on edge for a year.

The verdict said the move was a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president's foreign policy and economic agenda. The decision is arguably the most important loss the second Trump administration has sustained at the conservative Supreme Court, which has repeatedly sided with the Republican leader in a series of emergency rulings on immigration, the firing of the leaders of independent agencies and deep cuts to government spending.

The ruling sets up a long fight for tariff refunds, as the duties, now deemed illegal, generated some $133.5 billion from January 2025 to mid-December.

The top court did not address the refunds issue, and analysts say this will be decided by lower courts in the coming months.