Claim: US President Donald Trump has revealed that Pakistan shot down eight Indian planes during the four-day conflict between the two countries in May 2025 and that New Delhi “knelt down and begged for a ceasefire”.
Fact: Trump did not make such a claim in the said video, which is actually an interview conducted by Axios’ White House reporter Marc Caputo. The US president mentioned “11 planes were shot down” but did not say whose. He did not mention the ceasefire either or that India had “begged” for one.
On 22 June 2026, journalist Zulfiqar Ahmad Rahat posted a video showing Axios’ White House reporter Marc Caputo interviewing US President Donald Trump.
Rahat, who is also the founder and chairperson of the Pakistan Journalist Foundation (PJF), wrote the following caption alongside the ‘video’:
“ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ کا سنسنی خیز انکشاف! 🚨 ’پاکستان نے بھارت کے 8 طیارے گرائے، ایٹمی ہتھیار چلنے ہی والے تھے کہ انڈیا نے گھٹنے ٹیک کر جنگ بندی کی بھیک مانگ لی۔‘ ٹرمپ نے پہلی بار دنیا کو بتایا کہ بھارت کس قدر خوفزدہ تھا اور جنگ کیسے رکی! 👇🇵🇰🇮🇳
[Donald Trump’s sensational revelation! 🚨 ‘Pakistan shot down 8 Indian planes, nuclear weapons were about to be used when India knelt down and begged for a ceasefire.’ Trump told the world for the first time how scared India was and how the war was stopped! 👇🇵🇰🇮🇳]”
The video was posted on what appears to be Rahat’s Facebook page, which is different from his personal profile.
India-Pakistan conflict of May 2025
In May 2025, India and Pakistan engaged in the most extensive four-day conflict in decades, exchanging drones, fire, shelling, and missiles that brought 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 2025. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack, while Islamabad has consistently denied the claim.
During the conflict, India also sent Israeli-made Harop drones to Pakistan, which were reportedly shot down by the army. Soch Fact Check visited and investigated two crash sites each in Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore; read our on-ground report.
On 10 May, US President 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 Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanking Trump “for his leadership and proactive role” as well as 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 downed at least six Indian jets. Islamabad has also 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 number for the planes.
Gen Chauhan himself has 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, however, 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 Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti stated that his country’s armed forces were “in a combat situation and losses are a part of combat”, Brut India reported. However, he did not reveal any further information.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first reviewed exactly what Trump said in the viral video. Here’s a transcript of his remarks:
“I stopped Pakistan from fighting India — two nuclear nations — and the prime minister of Pakistan said, President Trump saved 50 million lives. They were going to use nuclear weapons. 11 planes were shot down. They were at it. And I was hearing about it, then I saw some really terrible pictures. They were going at it, Pakistan and India. They have gone at it in the past, but this was — and they’re both nuclear-armed, heavily — and they were going to use those nuclear weapons. And the prime minister of Pakistan said Donald Trump saved 50 million lives. But it’s not 50, I think it was much more than that. 50 is nothing when you look at 1.5 billion people just in India alone. So I think that there are no limits. We have the most powerful military in the world by far. Who else could have done a blockade like that? I did a naval blockade.
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral clip along with specific words from Trump’s comments led to the original interview uploaded on Axios’ website and YouTube channel on 19 June 2026. However, the former is 34 minutes long and the latter has an additional 34 seconds.
The full 45-minute “extended” interview can be viewed on a different page on Axios’ website and the exact remarks can be heard at the 15:19 mark.
Trump’s comments came in response to Caputo’s question about what the US president “learned about not just the exercise of power, but the limits on [his] power as a result of the conflict” involving his country, Iran, and Israel.
He said, “There are no limits. No, none. I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily. I was asked by Pakistan because they’re close to [Iran to] please not do anymore. I said, I like them a lot. You know…”
This is where the section shown in the viral posts starts.
Nowhere in the interview did Trump say that “Pakistan shot down 8 Indian planes”, “India knelt down and begged for a ceasefire” or that New Delhi was “scared”.
A transcript available on Axios corroborates the same.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that while the video is authentic, the claim in the accompanying caption is false.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video shared more than a dozen times on Facebook and almost 10 times on Instagram.
One X (formerly Twitter) post has gained upwards of 59,000 views so far.
Conclusion: Trump did not make such a claim in the said video, which is actually an interview conducted by Axios’ White House reporter Marc Caputo. The US president mentioned “11 planes were shot down” but did not say whose. He did not mention the ceasefire or that India had “begged” for one.
Background image in cover photo: DonaldTrump
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com