The TOI correspondent from Washington: Absent any formal briefing from Washington, speculation raged about the real purpose of the Trump-Sharif meeting , which came soon after the US president hosted a lunch for Turkish leader Erdogan, who, like India, was asked by the US to cease purchasing Russian energy. But Pakistan is not a significant economic power, somuch of the conjecture centered on Trump’s recent post seeking to retake the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, now under Taliban rule, and also Washington repurposing Islamabad for exploiting its purported mineral wealth. The US also appears to have taken a benign view of the Saudi-Pak defence pact even though it is ostensibly aimed at Israel, arguably the closest US ally.
Even Pakistan’s defence minister Khwaja Asif shed little light on the meeting with a cryptic social media post that read: “Victory over India, defence agreement with Saudi Arabia, and unprecedented progress in Pak-US relations. 2025, a year full of successes, Alhamdulillah. The continuation of the successes of the hybrid system's partnership. Allahu Akbar.”
The meeting, which was scheduled for 4.30 pm, began almost an hour late as Trump was busy signing executive orders and bantering with reporters.
Shortly before he met the Pakistani duo, Trump told the White House press corps, "I'm very dissatisfied with what Russia's doing and what President Putin is doing. I haven't liked it at all...I have solved seven wars. In fact, we have a great leader coming, the prime minister of Pakistan and the field marshal. Field marshal is a very great guy and so is the prime minister, both, and they're coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don't know, because we're late...they actually maybe somewhere in the Oval Office…behind you."
The fact that he did not mention – or remember – their names was trademark Trump transactional, which some Pakistani analysts opposed to the current regime lit into.” Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his first term alone. His strategy is pure exaggeration. Here, he inflates the stature of a military dictator and his puppet with empty praise, all to conscript their services for his dirty work in Gaza," Adil Raja, a retired Pakistani army officer and a vocal critic of the establishment he once served, said on X.
"Calling Pakistan's fascist rulers "great leaders" is just the price tag for making them his cleanup crew. Only idiots can celebrate this statement!" Raja, now a staunch supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and a social media influencer, wrote. Critics also noted that there were no opening or closing remarks, nor any statement or press conference after the engagement.
Supporters of the current Pakistani dispensation, though, rejoiced over the country getting back into the good books of the White House – based on the visuals – after almost two decades of being in the doghouse for its use of terrorist proxies, something even Trump had flagged as far back as 2012 when he was still on the margins of US politics.
“When will Pakistan apologise to us for providing safe sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden for 6 years?! Some 'ally'," he posted on July 5, 2012. And on January 1, 2018, during his first term as president: “We no longer pay Pakistan the $billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ending!"
That indeed now appears to have ended, with Pakistan opening up its purported mineral wealth for exploitation, and according to several media accounts, serving as a crypto front for US businesses with ties to the Trump family. On the sidelines of the White House meeting, Pakistan’s “minister of crypto,” British-Pakistani entrepreneur Bilal bin Saqib met Trump’s crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, to discuss avenues of collaboration between the US and Pakistan in the digital assets space,” the Pakistan crypto county said.
Even Pakistan’s defence minister Khwaja Asif shed little light on the meeting with a cryptic social media post that read: “Victory over India, defence agreement with Saudi Arabia, and unprecedented progress in Pak-US relations. 2025, a year full of successes, Alhamdulillah. The continuation of the successes of the hybrid system's partnership. Allahu Akbar.”
The meeting, which was scheduled for 4.30 pm, began almost an hour late as Trump was busy signing executive orders and bantering with reporters.
Shortly before he met the Pakistani duo, Trump told the White House press corps, "I'm very dissatisfied with what Russia's doing and what President Putin is doing. I haven't liked it at all...I have solved seven wars. In fact, we have a great leader coming, the prime minister of Pakistan and the field marshal. Field marshal is a very great guy and so is the prime minister, both, and they're coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don't know, because we're late...they actually maybe somewhere in the Oval Office…behind you."
The fact that he did not mention – or remember – their names was trademark Trump transactional, which some Pakistani analysts opposed to the current regime lit into.” Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims in his first term alone. His strategy is pure exaggeration. Here, he inflates the stature of a military dictator and his puppet with empty praise, all to conscript their services for his dirty work in Gaza," Adil Raja, a retired Pakistani army officer and a vocal critic of the establishment he once served, said on X.
"Calling Pakistan's fascist rulers "great leaders" is just the price tag for making them his cleanup crew. Only idiots can celebrate this statement!" Raja, now a staunch supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and a social media influencer, wrote. Critics also noted that there were no opening or closing remarks, nor any statement or press conference after the engagement.
Supporters of the current Pakistani dispensation, though, rejoiced over the country getting back into the good books of the White House – based on the visuals – after almost two decades of being in the doghouse for its use of terrorist proxies, something even Trump had flagged as far back as 2012 when he was still on the margins of US politics.
“When will Pakistan apologise to us for providing safe sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden for 6 years?! Some 'ally'," he posted on July 5, 2012. And on January 1, 2018, during his first term as president: “We no longer pay Pakistan the $billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ending!"
That indeed now appears to have ended, with Pakistan opening up its purported mineral wealth for exploitation, and according to several media accounts, serving as a crypto front for US businesses with ties to the Trump family. On the sidelines of the White House meeting, Pakistan’s “minister of crypto,” British-Pakistani entrepreneur Bilal bin Saqib met Trump’s crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, to discuss avenues of collaboration between the US and Pakistan in the digital assets space,” the Pakistan crypto county said.
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