Doug Bandow
In early July, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praised India and its military cooperation with America. Announced the Pentagon: “Secretary Hegseth emphasized the priority the United States places on India as its key defense partner in South Asia. Secretary Hegseth and Minister Singh reviewed the considerable progress both countries have made toward achieving the defense goals set out in the February 2025 joint statement by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi.”
In fact, Narendra Modi and Donald Trump seemed to be best buddies during the president’s first term. Reported the Washington Post: “The men shared bear hugs, showered praise on each other and made appearances side by side at stadium rallies—a big optics boost for two populist leaders with ideological similarities. Each called the other a good friend.” The bromance resumed after Trump’s second inauguration, with the Indian prime minister being one of the first foreign leaders to visit the White House.
Alas, that was then, this is now. This month Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods, then doubled it to 50 percent. He sneered that India had a “dead” economy, even though it is growing faster than America’s own economy—indeed, India has recently enjoyed the world’s fastest growing major economy. Worse, complained the president, India’s government and people buy Russian oil, “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” he charged. Yet the president never punished Saudi Arabia for killing Yemenis or Israel for killing Palestinians, though both nations inflicted mass death with American arms.
What, then, is Trump’s real motivation for targeting New Delhi? Unfortunately, the president is acting like he was elected global gauleiter. He told The Atlantic: “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive,” but “the second time, I run the country and the world.” In this, he sounds like his addled predecessor, who declared, “not only am I campaigning, but I'm running the world. Not—and that's not hi—sounds like hyperbole, but we are the essential nation of the world.” However, Joe Biden, though deluded, was neither as ambitious nor brazen as Trump, whose goals appear unbounded.
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