Did a video authentically show President Donald Trump saying, of clashes between India and Pakistan in May 2025, "let 'em fight"? No, that's not true: The clip was authentic, but was recorded in 2019. Trump was speaking then in the context of conflict between ISIS and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The claim appeared in a May 6, 2025, post on X (archived here), which consisted of a text caption that read "...sir, what do you REALLY think about India and Pakistan?" and a video that showed Trump saying:
...they're fighting each other. I said "Why don't you let them fight? Why are we getting in the middle of it?" I said "Let 'em fight!"...
The clip can be viewed in full here:
"...sir, what do you REALLY think about India and Pakistan?" pic.twitter.com/um9xI7UWXR
-- il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) May 6, 2025
In reality, that clip was recorded on January 2, 2019, and Trump was speaking about a completely different conflict - that between ISIS and the Taliban in Afghanistan:
