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Washington, DC: A diplomatic spectacle unfolded inside the White House as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir lingered “somewhere in the Oval” for nearly an hour, while US President Donald Trump played to the cameras.
“They are coming, and they may be in this room right now. I don’t know, because we are late,” Trump told reporters from behind the Resolute Desk.
He then doubled down with his signature theatrics. “We have a great leader coming, the prime minister of Pakistan and the field marshal. The field marshal is a very great guy, and so is the prime minister, both, and they are coming, and they may be in this room right now,” said the US president.
According to the White House’s official schedule, Trump had a closed-door meeting lined up withSharif. The wait, however, turned into a moment that left Washington insiders buzzing.
The Pakistan prime minister’s US trip had already seen high-level encounters. On September 23, he met Trump informally after the American president’s sit-down with leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, where Pakistan featured prominently.
“Informal exchange followed the dialogue between President Trump and leaders of eight Islamic-Arab countries, including Pakistan. Prime Minister Shehbaz and Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar joined President Donald Trump in the discussion,” Pakistan’s foreign minister wrote in a post on X.
The encounter marked another step in a thaw few saw coming. For years, Washington and Islamabad traded barbs, but the ice began to break after May when Pakistan publicly credited Trump for his “peace intervention” during its border flare-up with India.
Trump boasted he had pushed both nuclear rivals toward ceasefire by dangling tariff and trade threats. India rejected the claim outright, but Islamabad went further, even nominating Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.
By June, the new friendship looked real. Trump welcomed Munir into the White House. Trade, development and even cryptocurrency landed on the agenda. A trade deal was quickly inked, and Washington offered to help Islamabad exploit what Trump described as “massive oil reserves”.
Munir returned to Washington in August, and this time Pakistan walked away with a USD 500 million American investment targeted at its critical minerals sector.
The Oval Office drama coincided with Trump’s latest economic move at home. Earlier in the day, he signed an executive order clearing the way for a TikTok takeover by American investors. “This is interesting because I had a very good talk with President Xi, a lot of respect for him. Hopefully, he has a lot of respect for me, too. We talked about TikTok, and he gave us the go-ahead,” Trump announced.
“You know, it is run by American investors and American companies, great ones, great investors, the biggest. The young people really wanted this to happen.”
Last week, Trump had revealed that Xi Jinping had given his nod for TikTok’s US future. Trump stressed the deal would place the app under “tight control” from Washington, calling it “a very good deal” for America.
For Pakistan’s leadership, however, the symbolism of waiting outside Trump’s Oval Office while he dominated headlines at home and abroad was hard to miss.