Democrats' US Congress win puts Pakistan's Trump outreach under scrutiny

Democrats won Tuesday's congressional elections in the United States, and Pakistan's government is preparing for scrutiny of the access it built to President Donald Trump's White House over two years, Reuters reported.

Army chief Asim Munir was Islamabad's main channel to the White House. Pakistan's military says the talks went beyond security to cooperation in mining, energy and cryptocurrency. Pakistan joined Trump's Board of Peace and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, crediting him with helping end its May 2025 conflict with India. New Delhi denies that US mediation halted hostilities.

Earlier this year Islamabad relayed messages and hosted April talks between Washington and Tehran, though the arrangement that followed, referred to as the Islamabad Agreement, quickly faltered, according to the report.

Pakistanis interviewed by Reuters in Karachi after the vote said they wanted relief from war-inflated oil prices. "We believe meaningful negotiations with the current US administration are not possible, and the ongoing bloodshed will not end until there is a change in [the US] government," Sajjad Ali said. "We want peace, economic improvement and a reduction in the rising oil prices." Asim Zafar said a shift in Washington "could bring changes in important policies and perhaps help prevent some of the injustices being committed against Muslim countries".

Economic returns have been slow. The US Export-Import Bank approved $1.25 billion for the Reko Diq copper and gold project in December 2025. Pakistan's $10 billion request for a US Treasury facility remains unanswered.

Several arrangements involve Trump family members or close associates, which is where congressional examination would land. Islamabad signed memoranda to explore payments in USD1, a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, and to redevelop Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel in a deal negotiated by envoy Steve Witkoff. It has also placed a limited drone order with Powerus, whose investors include Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump. Asked about Powerus, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters in September: "There are no conflicts of interest."

Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington and a senior fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, said Pakistan's leaders had "built a transactional relationship" with Trump's team. Some arrangements involving the president's friends and relatives "might not last", he said, and "Pakistan seems totally unprepared for that scrutiny".

Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Center, warned that investigations could taint the wider relationship if dealings appeared driven by private interests.

Michael Kugelman of the Atlantic Council said counterterrorism cooperation and Iran diplomacy enjoyed bipartisan support, and that Democrats would be more likely to blame problematic deals on Trump than on Pakistan. "The risk for Pakistan is that it put so many of its diplomatic eggs in the White House basket that it won't have anything left for the Democrats," he said.