The recent India-Pakistan conflict was a litmus test for India-US strategic ties. And unfortunately, the United States, under President Donald Trump, did not pass.

From announcing a ceasefire to offering to mediate on Kashmir, to bizarrely claiming he averted a nuclear war using trade threats, Trump’s actions betrayed a lack of understanding and perhaps more worryingly, a hangover of America’s old entanglements with Pakistan. This is beyond just bad optics. This is bad policy.

But it gets way, way worse. Trump’s entanglement with Pakistan on a personal level — for business deals no less — is emerging as a major unforeseen challenge as well.

Trump has been making a lot of statements favourable to Pakistan, equating the terror-sponsoring nation with the terror victim, India. There’s a lot going on under the surface, that holds the answers. Trump’s personal interest in Pakistan is a bolt out of the blue.

While Pakistan is sponsoring cross-border terrorism against India, known jihadists Ismail Royer and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, with alleged past ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba, al Qaeda and Hamas — have been reportedly appointed to a White House advisory board under the Religious Liberty Commission. This has left Trump’s own support base scratching its head.

Another Trump ally, Gentry Beach, has been making backroom business deals in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Turkey. Get this, the Trump family is directly involved in business with Pakistan through their firm, World Liberty Financial. Trump’s family, including his sons Eric and Don Junior, owns a 60% stake in WLF, which recently entered a deal with Pakistan Crypto Council — a hastily-launched crypto firm with a vision to make Islamabad the region’s crypto capital. The PCC was only a month old when Trump’s close aide Steve Witkoff’s son, Zackary, was entertained by Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif as well as Army Chief Asim Munir.

This was just days before the Pahalgam terror attack took place. It seems that Trump’s open-air dealmaking has taken a dark turn. Sometimes, truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Trump’s recent actions have given it all away. On May 10, when the India-Pakistan conflict entered its peak and India attacked at least 11 Pakistani airbases going as far as the Noor Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Trump announced a ceasefire between the two countries. The announcement came abruptly, and it appeared as if the US — a big daddy, managed to make two brothers — India and Pakistan — stop fighting. To others, it seemed as if the US bailed Pakistan out exactly when India had the upper hand. But it soon became clear that Trump was hogging the credit for something India had achieved with sheer military dominance.

Here’s what happened, Pakistan felt its nuclear command........

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