WASHINGTON: Marking one year in office, President Donald Trump held a wide-ranging press conference where he vigorously defended his foreign policy record, made new international announcements, and revisited past controversies.
Trump centered his remarks on U.S. alliances, making a striking claim about NATO. “No person or president has done as much work for NATO as I have done,” he stated. “If I had not supported it, NATO would not exist today and would have become a pile of ashes in history. It is sad but true.”
He also revisited the 2019 military standoff between India and Pakistan, asserting a decisive personal role. “I stopped the Indo-Pakistan war,” Trump claimed. “If the Indo-Pakistan war had not stopped, 10 to 20 million people would have been killed.” He cited thanks from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who he said told him, “you saved millions of lives.”
On new initiatives, the President sought to clarify the purpose of his proposed “Gaza Peace Board,” stressing it was “not an alternative to the United Nations” and that the UN should continue its work. He also teased a future action regarding Greenland that would make “NATO happy and so will we,” without providing details.
Domestically, Trump addressed the legal uncertainty surrounding his signature trade policies, acknowledging that a Supreme Court ruling against his administration could force the return of “hundreds of billions of dollars” in tariffs, which he argued were “legally implemented.”
In other announcements, Trump confirmed he would not attend the upcoming G7 summit in Paris and expressed no interest in meeting imprisoned former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The press conference underscored Trump’s continued focus on portraying himself as a transformative and deal-making leader on the global stage.
