Former top US officials sound alarm at Trump’s India policy, read how the US President has damaged relationship with India over the last few months
The US President Donald Trump has single-handedly damaged the India-US relationship-built brick by brick over the last two decades. His mindless quest for a Nobel Peace Prize, Pakistan pandering, and hypocritical desire to ‘punish’ India for buying Russian oil have not only irked India but also triggered sharp backlash domestically.
In this vein, former US National Security Adviser (NSA), John Bolton, said that once-strong personal relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump has faded now. Bolton opined that Trump’s mistreatment of India has undermined years of bipartisan US efforts to deepen cooperation between New Delhi and Washington against China. He said that Trump has pushed PM Modi closer to Russia and China.
“Trump had a very good relationship personally with Modi. I think that’s gone now. It’s a lesson to everybody, and a good personal relationship may help at times, but it won’t protect you from the worst. The White House has set U.S.-India relations back decades, pushing Modi closer to Russia and China. Beijing has cast itself as an alternative to the U.S. and Donald Trump,” Bolton said, adding that Trump’s tariff imposition on India for its Russian oil imports amounts to an “unforced error”.
Meanwhile, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and ex-deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell have criticised the Trump administration for hyphenating India and Pakistan. In a joint op-ed published in Foreign Affairs magazine on 4th September 2025, Sullivan and Campbell contended that India’s status as the world’s largest democracy, technological dynamism, and its desire for a free and open Indo-Pacific “has led to a strategic alignment with the United States that has effectively disincentivised reckless Chinese adventurism.”
The former US officials asserted that it is imperative for US partners to “impress on their Indian interlocutors that US President Donald Trump’s theatrics are often the prelude to dealmaking.”
Sullivan and Campbell’s op-ed critiquing Trump and his reckless approach against India comes at a time when Trump’s 50 percent tariffs, coupled with the disrespectful rhetoric unleashed by his attack dogs Peter Navarro and Scott Bessent, have angered India. Prioritising its strategic autonomy, India has maintained good relations with US and Russia, however, the recent bonhomie seen between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit has alarmed those in the US who have either actively contributed in bringing India and US closer or attach importance to India’s role in terms of countering a communist China.
Regarding the chemistry seen between the R.I.C. leaders, Sullivan and Campbell wrote, “As [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s chummy appearance over the weekend with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear, the United States could end up driving India directly into its adversaries’ arms.”
Interestingly, Jake Sullivan and Kurt Campbell addressed a key concern that most in the US, particularly in the Trump administration, do not care to ponder over—the outrageous hyphenation of India and Pakistan. However, they too could not help but assert that Pakistan is important in combating terrorism. The delusion that Pakistan, a country whose military leadership essentially harbours and funds Islamic terrorists, who attack the US’s much more important ‘ally’ India, can help the US combat terrorism has passed on from the Biden administration to the Trump administration.
“The United States has enduring interests in Pakistan in combating terrorism and limiting nuclear and missile proliferation, but these pale in significance to Washington’s multifaceted and consequential interests regarding India’s future,” they said.
Sullivan and Campbell’s opinion piece came in the backdrop of Donald Trump claiming credit for the ceasefire understanding between India and Pakistan in May after India pounded Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, forcing the Pakistani DGMO to beg ceasefire with his Indian counterpart. While Pakistan decided to bend over backwards to please Trump, thanked him a million times for his imaginary role in brokering the Indo-Pak ceasefire, and even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump desperately seeks, India did not indulge in any such sycophancy. India denied Trump’s role and his claim that the US President used trade as leverage to make India agree to end the conflict. India also refused to open up its agriculture and dairy market for the US, leaving the profit-sucking Trump irked.
What followed was the manifestation of Trump’s bruised ego. While India got 25 percent reciprocal tariffs, additional 25 percent tariffs for buying Russian oil, blame for Russia-Ukraine war, needless vilification, Pakistan got rewarded with a trade deal, a crypto deal with US company having its large ownership with Trump’s relatives, reduced tariff, commitment of developing oil reserves in Pakistan and Trump’s new-found admiration for a Madarsa-bred anti-India and anti-Hindu Islamist Asim Munir, the self-appointed Field Marshal-cum-de-facto ruler of Pakistan.
Interestingly, a few days ago, Jake Sullivan gave an interview wherein he alleged that he had “thrown away” ties with India over Pakistan’s willingness to do business with Trump’s family.
“US has worked to build a relationship with India, a country that we should be aligned with on technology, talent, economics, and so many issues. And align with dealing with strategic threats from China. Now. I think because of Pakistan’s willingness to do business with the Trump family, Trump has thrown away India’s relationship on the side. Germany or Japan will look at that (India) and say that could be us tomorrow. America’s friends will think that they can’t rely on us in any way.” Jake Sullivan told MeidasTouch.
Nikki Haley, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump (in his first term), has also been vocal about Trump’s tariff policies on India. She has described the alienation of India as a “strategic disaster” at a time of China’s rising assertiveness. Haley said that decades of US administrations, from George Bush to Barack Obama cultivated India as a counterbalance to China, however, Trump’s quest for transactional gains risks the Indo-US ties, which would have detrimental costs for the US.
Ivo Daalder, the former US Ambassador to NATO, wrote an op-ed in The Politico on 1st September 2025, wherein he observed the unprecedented shift in US-India relations, saying that Trump’s actions, including the reciprocal tariff on Indian imports and subsequent increases, have led to a “stunning public rupture” between the two countries. Daalder highlighted the optimism in India during Trump’s early second term and contrasted it with the rapid deterioration. Daalder asserted that “the U.S. is losing a strategic partner in an important part of the world.”
On 27th August, former Assistant Secretary of State for Energy and Natural Resources, Former Ambassador to Ukraine and Greece, Geofrey Pyatt and former Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs, Former Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, David L. Goldwyn, co-authored a opinion piece for Atlantic Council, warned Trump administration that its punitive approach towards India, especially, the secondary tariffs on India’s Russian oil purchases, is “unsustainable”. They argued that targeting India with tariffs while exempting China, which is the biggest buyer of Russian oil, undermines the US’s sanctions policy credibility. They noted that such actions against India would only push New Delhi closer to an informal alignment with China, Russia and the BRICS bloc. This geopolitical reset would harm the US’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific. They also recommended suspending tariffs against India and reviving bilateral trade talks.
Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Summit, former US Trade Representative, Michael Fronman, appeared on CNBC TV’s show Squawk Box’ and discussed how and why India is drifting away from China. When asked by the anchor about how the US has, for decades, been trying to keep India away from China, but Trump’s 50 percent tariffs have brought India and China closer, Fronman said that since the Clinton administration, the US has “changed” the nature of Indo-US ties.
“The recent actions on tariffs have very much struck India by surprise to be among the highest tariff countries in the world… This is Modi’s first trip to China in seven years, and it’s a direct reaction to the fact that the Us imposed these tariffs. They don’t feel they can rely on the United States as a strategic partner going forward, and they’re exploring their other options with China and the other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation… India’s been wondering why it’s facing a 25 percent tariff because of the oil it is buying from Russia, where China, which buys more oil from Russia, faces no such tariff,” Fronman said.
Donald Trump is hell bent on destroying India-US relations, all because India did not behave like Pakistan
What began with Trump’s social media post claiming credit for brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and India’s outright denial of Trump’s fictional claim, even as Trump repeated the claim over 40 times now like a broken record playing the same song, has now snowballed into a raging one-sided blame game. For years since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, India bought Russian oil for discounted rates, held a portion of it for domestic needs, and sold its own finished petroleum products to Europe, the US and other countries.
In fact, the very intent behind the G7’s $60-per-barrel price cap was to keep Russian oil flowing while cutting Moscow’s windfall revenues. No one had a problem all this while; rather, the US encouraged, and former US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, even praised India for its role in ensuring stability in the global energy market by purchasing Russian oil and selling petroleum products.
Even Trump raised no objection over India’s Russian oil purchase between January and April this year. It was only after India refuted Trump’s ‘I stopped the war’ claims and ignored his subtle hints to New Delhi to nominate him for Nobel Prize that Trump turned hostile. Clearly, it was never about Russia-Ukraine war, but about Trump’s frustration over India not bowing down before him.
Since then, Trump has called Indian economy ‘dead’ even as it is thriving, levelled 50 percent tariffs, discontinued trade deal talks as India added to his chagrin by refusing to open its agricultural and dairy market for the US, his officials have blamed India for deaths of Ukrainians, labelled Russia-Ukraine war as ‘Modi’s war’ and accused India of profiteering from the ongoing war.
Beyond the false narrative Trump officials have been peddling, the US has been the biggest profiteer of the Russia-Ukraine war. During his meeting with the US President in Alaska on 16th August, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that US-Russia bilateral trade had expanded by over 20 per cent in the past few months, exposing Trump’s persistent claims that the US has been pressuring Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
American oil companies have made record profits since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022. From liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, arms sales, and several other war-driven opportunities, the US is apparently the biggest profiteer of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The US sold its cheap LNG to Europe at monumentally higher prices, often four times the US domestic rate citing ‘war-induced disruptions, benefiting from Europe’s urgent need for alternatives. In 2022, US oil and gas companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil registered record profits with a massive 125% jump from pre-war 2021.
Beyond energy, the US also benefited from the Russia-Ukraine war through its defence exports. Donald Trump is selling his weapons to Ukraine through European nations at a 10% premium, essentially to fill America’s coffers while people from both Russia and Ukraine continue to lose their lives. Trump has even put a cost to US involvement in providing security guarantees to Ukraine.
The US profiteered from the Russia-Ukraine war, and now, even in peace talks, Trump is pursuing profits, but the Trump administration wants the world to believe that India fuelled Russia’s ‘war machine’.
Besides profiteering from the Russia-Ukraine war, America has also continued its trade relations with Moscow. From non-ferrous metals, fertilisers, inorganic chemicals, to nuclear reactors and machinery, prepared animal feed, iron and steel, and oil seeds, etc, the US imports from Russia have been consistent and, in some cases, have increased. This is while the West has imposed numerous sanctions on Russia and claims to have intentions of crippling the Russian economy.
Other than Indo-Russian trade, the Trump administration now has a problem with India and China mutually agreeing to resolve disputes and expand cooperation. Peter Navarro has been talking about how India is a democracy and it should not be ‘cosying up’ to autocratic powers like China and Russia, rather, it should align with the world’s oldest democracy, America. He said that India should not forget its border disputes with China.
India remembers all the wounds inflicted by China. India remembers China’s mindless border aggression and illegal claims over Indian territories. India remembers Aksai Chin, Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. India remembers China’s military and policy support to the Islamic terrorist state of Pakistan. India also remembers China’s defence support and vow to protect Pakistan against India during Operation Sindoor.
But India has also not forgotten the US’s constant backing of Pakistan, even as the latter gave 9/11 to America and squeezed dollars out of America in the name of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. If Trump can forget 9/11 and how Pakistan hid Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden for years in Abbottabad, and go on to sign trade deals and mollycoddle its jihadist military chief, why can’t India sit across the negotiating table with China and resolve disputes? India has not forgotten that the US, which has a disproportionately high voting share in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), chose not to block the IMF’s bailout package worth $ 1 billion to Pakistan even after India confirmed that the Pakistani terrorist outfit and its jihadis were behind the Pahalgam terror attack.
The hypocrisy is glaring. For years, the US wanted India on its side to counter a communist and autocratic China because India is the world’s largest democracy, and its values align significantly with those of the US. However, the same ‘champion of democracy’ has no qualms about mollycoddling an Islamic jihadist Pakistani military regime, which hides behind the veneer of its puppet ‘democratic’ government.
As the former US officials have been pointing out, Trump’s mindless quest for the Nobel Peace Prize, one-sidedly lucrative trade deals, insulting rhetoric, and unacceptable hyphenation of a failed Islamic state of Pakistan with a thriving democracy and the world’s fourth-largest economy, India, have collectively damaged the painstakingly built India-US relations. India will never forget what it sees as nothing less than a betrayal by Trump. While India’s presence in both BRICS and QUAD indicates that it has never been interested in joining the anti-West bloc or the anti-Russia bloc but in maintaining equal, respectful and mutually beneficial relationships with all countries (except for the state sponsor of anti-India terrorism), New Delhi will proceed with more caution while engaging with Washington in the future.
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