Trade Wars: Trump Targets India

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order slapping India with a 25 percent special tariff due to its purchases of Russian oil. This surprise measure raised the total tariff on Indian exports to the United States to 50 percent—among the highest rates imposed by the United States on any country in the world.

But India is not just “any country.” Over the last quarter-century, it has emerged as one of America’s most valuable strategic partners. Trump’s tariff move has plunged the bilateral relationship into crisis, raising difficult questions about the future of both U.S. and Indian foreign policy.

Grand Tamasha emerged from its summer hiatus for an emergency episode to make sense of these developments and their global ramifications. For this special episode, Milan is joined by Grand Tamasha regulars, Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution.

The trio discuss the drivers behind Trump’s decision, India’s response to the crisis, and the future of India’s policy of “multi-alignment.” Plus, the two discuss the U.S. government’s 180-degree turn on Pakistan and the prospects for an amicable resolution of the U.S.-India trade spat by summer’s end.

Episode notes:

1. Praveen Swami, “Asim Munir’s India nuke threat from US ballroom—‘will take half the world down,’” ThePrint, August 10, 2025.

2. Sadanand Dhume, “India Is Losing Its Best and Brightest,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2025.

3. “Tanvi Madan on the geopolitical shifts revealed by the India-Pakistan crisis,” The Economist, May 12, 2025.

4. Ashley J. Tellis, “India’s Great-Power Delusions,” Foreign Affairs (July/August 2025).

5. Nirupama Rao, Dhruva Jaishankar, Lisa Curtis, and Ashley J. Tellis, “What Kind of Great Power Will India Be?” Foreign Affairs (September/October 2025).

6. Milan Vaishnav, “How India Can Placate America,” Foreign Affairs, July 16, 2025.

7. “What Kind of Great Power Will India Become? (with Ashley J. Tellis),” Grand Tamasha, July 2, 2025.