After President Donald Trump applied 50 percent tariffs on all imported goods from India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met this weekend in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Note: Trump has said he wants India to stop importing Russian oil, which is helping to finance Russia’s war against Ukraine.)
Many political pundits including former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul are voicing criticism of the Trump administration for alienating an American ally, India, and pushing it toward American adversaries.
McFaul wrote: “Just last year, China and India were at war with each other! Trump and team are just bad at diplomacy.”
Trump responded to the triad summit on social media by writing: “What few people understand is that we do very little business with India, but they do a tremendous amount of business with us. In other words, they sell us massive amounts of goods, their biggest ‘client,’ but we sell them very little…India has charged us, until now, such high Tariffs, the most of any country, that our businesses are unable to sell into India.”
Trump added a threat: “They have now offered to cut their Tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago.”
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 1, 2025
Note: According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: “U.S. goods and services trade with India totaled an estimated $212.3 billion in 2024, up 8.3 percent ($16.3 billion) from 2023.” The office breaks down the data by goods and services:
“U.S. total goods trade (exports plus imports) with India was an estimated $128.9 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to India in 2024 were $41.5 billion, up 3.0 percent ($1.2 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from India in 2024 totaled $87.3 billion, up 4.5 percent ($3.8 billion) from 2023. The U.S. goods trade deficit with India was $45.8 billion in 2024, a 5.9 percent increase ($2.6 billion) over 2023.”
The report also details services trade with India, which shows the U.S. with a small surplus.
“U.S. total services trade (exports plus imports) with India totaled an estimated $83.4 billion in 2024. U.S. services exports to India in 2024 were $41.8 billion, up 15.9 percent ($5.7 billion) from 2023. U.S. services imports from India in 2024 were $41.6 billion, up 15.4 percent ($5.6 billion) from 2023. The U.S. services trade surplus with India was $102 million in 2024, compared to a services trade deficit of $76 million in 2023.”
More than one X user criticized the President’s post by summarizing the data like so: “Based on the 2024 data, the U.S. sells approximately $42B to a $4T economy, India sells $87B to a $30T economy. Relative to economy size, the U.S. sells more to India than the other way round.“
Numerous America First MAGA supporters replied to Trump’s post regarding India by suggesting that the administration further cut ties with India and end the HB1 visa program, cutting off the importation of skilled workers from India to the U.S.
An unpopular move in corporate boardrooms, especially in a Silicon Valley reliant on global talent, MAGA adherents hope ending the HB1program will push American corporations to hire American workers and “not import them from India.”
X user Dan Clements wrote: “I’m a supporter of the administration… Hopefully, your next post states that the administration is stopping the H1B program indefinitely and that the administration will also stop the importation of 300k+ Chinese students into U.S. universities every year, and that deportations are going to ramp up tenfold.”
Some Trump critics suggest that the President is upset with India for personal reasons. As one replied: “Trump is mad because India refused to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. It has nothing to do with tariffs.”
[According to The New York Times, Modi told Trump that the U.S. President had nothing to do with the recent India-Pakistan cease-fire and refused to engage in a conversation about a Nobel nomination.]