Claim: US President Donald Trump wore a fighter jet pin during a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, to humiliate India and indicate Islamabad’s victory over New Delhi in the May 2025 conflict.
Fact: Trump wore the pin during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to signal a willingness to lift the US ban on sales of advanced fighter jets to Turkey.
Multiple social media posts from 26 September 2025 suggested that Trump wore a fighter pin during his meeting with Pakistani PM Sharif and Field Marshal Munir, allegedly to humiliate India for losing its fighter jets during the four-day military conflict in May earlier this year.
It was not just common people who were sharing the claim. Among those spreading it were Tamgha-e-Imtiaz recipient and consultant Shama Junejo, content creator Adnan Hashmi who goes by @inspiredanalyst, and journalist and columnist Nadeem Farooq Paracha (archived here, here, and here).
Referring to Pakistan’s claim of shooting down six jets, Junejo wrote, “6-0. Trump likes trolling and he is best in it (sic).” Hashmi said, “He wore an Airforce Jet Badge to troll Indians 😂”. And Paracha captioned the image as, “Good morning, Modi. That’s a jet.”
An X user even went as far as to falsely quote (archive) the US president as saying, “I am wearing fighter jet pin badge as a tribute to PAF 6-0 against India. These guys have been exceptional . They have written history”.
Soch Fact Check has previously debunked claims by Junejo here and here, by Hashmi here, and by Paracha here and here.
India-Pakistan conflict
In May 2025, India and Pakistan engaged in the most extensive four-day conflict in decades, exchanging drones, fire, shelling, and missiles, bringing the two nuclear-armed nations to the brink of an all-out war.
The conflict was triggered by the killing of at least 26 people by assailants at a resort in Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack, a claim which has been denied by Islamabad.
India subsequently launched missiles on what it claimed were “terrorist bases” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and some sites in the Punjab province on 7 May. The missile attack initially killed 31 people, including women and children, according to an Associated Press (AP) report that cited the Pakistani military.
Both sides exchanged heavy shelling across the Line of Control (LoC) in the subsequent days, according to different reports. On the first day of the conflict, Pakistani authorities claimed they had shot down at least five Indian jets.
After launching missiles, India also sent Israeli-made Harop drones to Pakistan, which were reportedly shot down by the army. Soch Fact Check visited and investigated the attacks at two crash sites each in Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore; read our on-ground report here.
The conflict escalated thereafter, with both sides targeting each other’s military bases.
The total death toll was 51, including “40 civilians and 11 military service members”, while close to 200, including 121 civilians, were wounded, according to the Pakistan Army.
On the other hand, India announced that 21 civilians and five soldiers had died.
On 10 May, Trump announced a ceasefire, which was then confirmed by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and later by India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
Trump’s announcement came after US State Secretary Marco Rubio spoke separately to Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Foreign Minister Dar, and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
On the other hand, Pakistan expressed gratitude to the US, with PM Sharif thanking Trump “for his leadership and proactive role” and Vice President JD Vance and Rubio “for their valuable contributions for peace in South Asia”.
Pakistani, Indian officials say jets downed
Speaking at different events, PM Sharif said Pakistan had downed at least six Indian jets during the May 2025 conflict. Islamabad itself, however, has denied New Delhi’s claims that it suffered any losses of planes but “acknowledged” its bases were hit.
CNN cited “a high-ranking French intelligence official” who told the outlet that “one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan”. Later, Reuters reported that a US official, who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, said “there was high confidence” that Pakistan brought “down at least two” jets.
On the Indian side, multiple top officials have acknowledged losing at least one fighter jet during the four-day conflict with Pakistan, only stopping short of providing a total number for the planes lost.
India’s own Defence Chief Gen Anil Chauhan confirmed that India lost fighter jets during the May conflict but did not specify how many of them were downed, according to his interviews with Bloomberg and Reuters at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
“What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down. […] Why they were down, what mistakes were made — that are (sic) important. Numbers are not important,” Bloomberg quoted him as saying. According to Reuters, he said, “What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we’ll do after that.”
Indian Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in response to a question by CNBC-TV18 about losing fighter planes, “You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct.”
Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s defence attache to Indonesia, also acknowledged that some jets were downed. “I do agree we did lose some aircraft,” he said at a seminar in Indonesia, according to The Wire.
Moreover, in response to a question about Pakistan’s claim of downing Indian fighter jets, Indian deputy air chief Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti stated that his country’s armed forces were “in a combat situation and losses are a part of combat”, The Wire reported. However, he did not reveal any further information.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched for reliable news reports from reputable media outlets about whether Trump indeed wore the jet pin to humiliate India but did not find any. However, we found a White House statement in this regard in an article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which wrote:
“Trump wore a gold F-22 Raptor pin on his lapel for the meeting with Erdoğan, according to the White House.”
Breaking Defense, a news outlet dedicated to defence-related news, wrote, “A White House spokesperson gamely confirmed to Breaking Defense that it was an F-22, but declined to comment further on Trump’s wardrobe.”
A description on Getty Images states that the US president was wearing a “Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II pin”.
Trump wore it at a time when, according to The Associated Press, he “signaled that the United States might soon lift its hold on sales of advanced fighter jets” to Turkey, which was removed from the flagship F-35 fighter jet programme during his first presidential term over the purchase of “an air defense system from Russia”.
“The best thing he could do is not buy oil and gas from Russia,” the publication quoted him as saying. It added, “Erdoğan has made clear he is eager to see the hold on F-35s lifted, telling Trump that he came prepared to ‘thoroughly discuss’ the issue.”
Trump pushed for his Turkish counterpart “to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine, while hinting that he may drop a ban on Ankara buying US stealth fighter jets”, AFP reported.
According to WSJ, he also said, “We will be discussing the Patriots, F-35s. I know he wants the F-35s. He needs certain things and we need certain things, we are gonna come to a conclusion at the end of the day.”
Photographs from his meeting with Erdoğan also show him wearing the same pin, as evident here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The same pin was visible on his lapel while he was signing executive orders later in the day. This is evident in photographs available on Getty Images here, here, here, here, and here.
Most importantly, Trump’s meeting with Pakistani PM Sharif and Field Marshal Munir was after the one with his Turkish counterpart and the signing of executive orders, according to The White House’s schedule from that day.
The US president wore the pin at that time too, as evident from this image taken at 2:03 AM PKT, when he was signing executive orders, and another one taken at 2:16 AM PKT, as the Pakistani leaders waited for him. It indicates that he did not wear the pin specially for his meeting with Pakistani leaders.
Pictures posted by the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office show Trump wearing the pin as well.
The US president continued to sport the pin on 26 and 29 September during a game, while travelling on Air Force One, and in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, and here, here, and here on Threads.
It was also shared here, here, here, here, and here on X (formerly Twitter).
Multiple news outlets, such as MM News Digital, Aaj News, Suno News, GTV English, and The Truth International, also posted the claim.
Conclusion: Trump wore the pin during a meeting with Turkey’s Erdoğan, to signal a willingness to lift the US ban on sales of advanced fighter jets to Turkey.
Background image in cover photo: Shamsher Ali Niazi
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