Kudlow Denies Trump Lied About Being Asked To Mediate On Kashmir: ‘The President Doesn’t Make Things Up’

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2019 — National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow on Tuesday denied that President Donald Trump had lied about being asked to mediate the long-running dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir border region.

“The President doesn’t make things up,” Kudlow said when asked whether Trump had fabricated the claim. He added that in his opinion, the query was “a very rude question” which would be better handled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton.

On Monday, Trump claimed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to help settle the years-long conflict between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers.

“[Modi] actually said, ‘Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?’” Trump said during a bilateral meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imram Khan.

But shortly after that, a spokesperson for Modi said in a statement that that “[n]o such request has been made by [Modi] to the [Trump].”

Speaking to members of India’s parliament, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar also emphatically denied that Modi had made such a request to Trump during a meeting at the G20 summit in Japan.

“The U.S. president made certain remarks to the effect he was ready to mediate if requested by India and Pakistan. I categorically assure the house that no such request has been made by the prime minister,” said Jaishankar, who was in the room for the Trump=Modi meeting.

“I repeat, no such request was made,” he said.

According to The Washington Post, Trump made 10,796 false or misleading claims during his first 896 days in office, a period spanning from January 20, 2017 to June 10 of this year.