Islamabad, Pakistan – Addressing a mixed crowd of the diaspora and policy experts in New York late in September, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was asked about challenges in New Delhi’s relationship with the United States under President Donald Trump. Pakistan – perhaps uncomfortably for rival India – is an exception. Trump’s tumultuous second term has seen him rock the global economy with tariffs and the Iran war, upend decades of trust with traditional US allies, and attempt to shred international law and the institutions that govern it.
From Europe to the Middle East to East Asia, allies that counted on a US security umbrella are scrambling to build alternative partnerships, unable to rely on Washington for help if they are attacked. Leaders of nations that have been staunch US supporters have instead found themselves targeted – often personally – by Trump. Yet amid this churn, Pakistan has managed to turn what was a deeply troubled relationship with the US into a partnership that Trump repeatedly touts, even as the government in Islamabad has faced mounting criticism domestically over allegations that it is crushing political opposition and entrenching military rule in all but name.
As the US holds its midterm elections on November 3, with the power in the House of Representatives and Senate at stake, Pakistan is one country that will prefer success for Trump and his Republican Party, which at present is expected to lose critical seats in both chambers. After decades of strong ties, US-Pakistan relations had plummeted in recent years, as successive US presidents built close ties with rival India, and Islamabad was seen in Washington as duplicitous over its role in supporting both the US and, at the time, the Afghan Taliban. As presidents, Trump in his first term and then Joe Biden used harsh words to describe Pakistan.
But two months into his second term, in March 2025, Trump thanked Pakistan in his address to Congress for helping arrest a suspect in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul airport. Then, in May, came a major turning point. India and Pakistan fought an intense, four-day war after armed fighters killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The war ended in a ceasefire on May 10. Trump announced it first, and Pakistan thanked him for mediating it, but India rejects his account, insisting that the war was ended through bilateral talks. Since then, Pakistan’s top leadership has been welcomed at the White House, tariffs on its exports have been cut, and Islamabad has mediated between Washington and Tehran in their ongoing war.
Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for lunch at the White House – the first time for a Pakistani army chief who is not the country’s president. Trump has described Munir as his “favourite field marshal”. Pakistan also nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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