Escalating tensions have undermined Washington's long-standing strategy of positioning India as a regional counterweight to China, despite previous high-profile Trump-Modi displays of unity. Relations cooled in Trump's second term amid trade disputes and Modi's refusal to back Trump's Nobel Peace Prize push. Domestic MAGA actors have reframed the rupture as a civilizational clash, attacking Indian immigration and trade practices and leveraging a fatal Florida accident as political fodder. Trade adviser Peter Navarro has led an anti-India campaign within the White House, publishing op-eds and invoking India's caste dynamics while accusing certain groups of profiteering through Russian oil purchases.
The big picture: The escalation threatens to unravel Washington's years-long bet that India can serve as a regional counterweight to China - a strategy that Trump himself championed in his first term. But this week, with India-U.S. tensions soaring, Modi joined hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in his first visit to China in seven years.
What they're saying: For MAGA, which views domestic culture wars as inseparable from foreign policy, the rupture is an opening to reframe U.S.-India relations as a civilizational clash. The intrigue: Trade adviser Peter Navarro has led the anti-India campaign from inside the White House, penning op-eds and even wading into India's sensitive caste politics. "I want Indians to understand what is going on: Brahmins are profiteering by buying Russian oil at the expense of the Indian people," Navarro said in an explosive
Collection
[
|
...
]