THE TRUMP TRAP
Writing against the head of a powerful nation, you risk being thought of as pushing a personal or political agenda. And yet you are compelled to express your views, for whatever they are worth.
United States President Donald Trump has, since his return to office, set a pattern: he insults or penalises India and, in the same breath, invokes his friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as cover.
After initially declining to comment, India’s Ministry of External Affairs termed as “obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste” the remarks of American podcast host, Michal Savage, whose transcript Truth Social’s owner, Donald Trump, posted on his own account.
Savage called China and India “hell-holes” and claimed Chinese and Indian immigrants had not “integrated” into America as “European Americans” had.
You are left wondering why Trump endorsed this view. Some of his Indian admirers have even argued that it was a mere re-post and doubt if that amounted to an endorsement.
But, tellingly, a White House spokesperson doubled down, insisting that the president was “calling out the scam of unfettered birthright citizenship” and, in the same breath, citing his “strong friendship with Prime Minister Modi.”
The US Embassy in New Delhi sought to damage control, reminding that Trump had also called “India is a very good country with a very good friend of mine at the top.” This must embarrass the PM and anger those Indians who are asking when the next presidential insult will come.
Invoking ‘friendship’ with Modi frequently prompts doubts whether this is a genuine expression or is tongue-in-cheek, as a constant signal to him to fall in line.
In political and diplomatic circles, this has come to be called “Trump trap”. India is bearing the brunt of a mercurial president. This charade has gone on for 15 months and shows no sign of ending.
Trumpian disrespect, whether it is a personality defect or something he metes out to others as well, should not lull India into ignoring it in the earnest hope that America, after Trump, will be more decent. Silence and patience will not work with today’s Washington. In Trump’s world, they are seen as weakness and a licence to hurl more insults. Silence is not how one tackles a bully who has shown greater respect to those who hit back.
Many ask if Trump is hurt, deep down in his heart, about India refusing to acknowledge his role in ending last year’s India-Pakistan conflict and his public claim that he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Pakistan promptly did both and moved closer to Trump. Business deals with Trump’s son-in-law have further cemented ties with Washington. So well has Pakistan played its card, massaging Trump’s personal ego, that it is playing the mediator in ending the ongoing Gulf War.
Trump punished India by imposing among the highest tariffs and then damning it for buying Russian oil and weapons, while waving the ‘friendship’ flag. One year down, none of these issues has been fully resolved. This cat-and-mouse game has spilt over into this year. Tariff talks have stalled because of the Gulf crisis, even as the US Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s powers to impose tariffs unilaterally. That makes the US liable to refund US 130 bn it has already collected from numerous countries.
The provocation for calling India a ‘hellhole’ and clubbing it with China has been caused by the immigration issue. The two are among the seven countries from where illegal migration has been the maximum. But is that the real reason why Trump is angry?
There is another ongoing case before the US Supreme Court regarding the citizenship rights of an American-born person. We have earlier recorded here that, as in the tariff case where the challenge came from Neil Katyal, an Indian American, for this case also, another Indian-origin American lawyer, Smita Ghosh, is at the forefront of challenging the government. Trump has publicly abused lawyers who challenge his actions at home, and much of it spills over to relations with those countries.
But then, he has a record of abusing American blacks and Africans in general, Afghans and Muslims of other nationalities. He has even questioned Barack Obama’s American citizenship, although his own lineage is German. He secured out-of-turn American citizenship for his present wife, Melania’s family, who are Slovenians. To the agony of Trump and his MAGA supporters, America remains a nation of immigrants.
Many Indians are reminded of the foul language Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger used about Indira Gandhi and Indians at the height of the Bangladesh crisis. But they were third-person references, made privately. They became public only when official records were declassified. But Trump has habitually targeted, almost daily, in public and on social media, someone or some nation.
This has heightened since he launched the Gulf war that he cannot easily exit, triggering a global crisis. He has abused the Iranians, using threats and making false claims, even distracting his own officials engaged in conducting negotiations.
His targets are numerous. The Europeans, for refusing to join his campaign. He attacked the Pope, who decried his violent ways, telling him that he is in the Vatican because of America. Daunted by this low level of discourse, the Pope clarified that he had not meant to attack Trump, because, as he put it, “it is not in my interest.” The Catholic world is angry after he portrayed himself as Jesus.
Amnesty International and other global human rights bodies have called Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister ‘predators’ who follow no rules, no international laws.
Governments are wary of dealing with him for fear of being insulted. Britain is another example of a nation being vilified for not joining the blockade of the Hormuz Strait against Iran. King Charles visited the US only to prevent further deterioration. It was the toughest since he became the king.
Mentioning all this is tiring when there are better, urgent issues confronting the world.
Will the world suffer 45 more months of Trump? Or will the mid-term elections in November work to tame him?
