US Congresswoman says Trump’s policies may make him the President who ‘lost India’ | WATCH

Washington: US Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove has sharply criticised President Donald Trump’s approach towards India, warning that coercive policies are damaging the strategic partnership between the two nations.

Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on South and Central Asia, titled “The US-India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific”, the Democratic Congresswoman from California referred to the widely circulated car selfie of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin, remarking that it “spoke a thousand words”.

She warned that President Donald Trump’s policies towards India are causing “real and lasting damage” to strategic trust and mutual understanding, stressing that Washington must act with “incredible urgency” to repair bilateral ties.

Kamlager-Dove said, “Unless he changes course, Trump will be remembered as the American President who lost India, or more accurately, that chased India away while revitalising the Russian Empire, while breaking up the Transatlantic Alliance and menacing Latin America. That is not a legacy any President should be excited about having.”

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She added that future accounts of Trump’s antagonism towards India would highlight his “personal obsession with a Nobel Peace Prize”, which she argued had little to do with America’s long-term strategic interests. “While that is laughable, the harm that it will cause is not,” she remarked.

Trump has previously claimed he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end conflicts worldwide, including the clashes between India and Pakistan in May this year.

She argued that Trump’s policies were driving India closer to adversaries. “Trump’s policies towards India can only be described as ‘cutting our nose to spite our face’... being a coercive partner has a cost. And this poster is worth a thousand words", she said, referring to a photograph showing Narendra Modi and Vladimir Putin travelling together in a car in New Delhi. Putin had visited India last week on a State visit to attend the annual India–Russia Summit. Modi personally welcomed him at Palam Airport.

“You do not get a Nobel Peace Prize by driving US strategic partners into the arms of our adversaries,” Kamlager-Dove continued. “We must move with incredible urgency to mitigate the damage this administration has done to the US-India partnership and return to the cooperation that is essential to US prosperity, security, and global leadership,” she said.

She noted that previous Democratic and Republican governments had invested years in building trust, strengthening defence technology cooperation, revitalising the Quad alliance, and positioning India as a reliable supply chain partner. According to her, when Trump assumed office earlier this year, he inherited these achievements at their peak but quickly squandered them. She said the administration had “flushed away” this strategic capital in pursuit of Trump’s personal grievances.

In addition to tariffs, she argued that President Trump has undermined people-to-people ties between the United States and India through measures such as the USD 100,000 fee on H1B visas, the majority of which are held by Indian nationals. She characterised the move as a dismissal of the significant contributions Indians have made to science, technology, medicine and the arts in America.

Emphasising the importance of bilateral ties, she said the US–India relationship would be “defining” for both nations in shaping their place within the 21st-century world order.

Trump’s latest tariff on rice exports

Her remarks came as trade tensions escalated further following Trump’s warning of possible new tariffs on Indian rice exports. On Tuesday, the President accused New Delhi of “dumping” cheap rice into the US market, harming American farmers. He made the comments during a White House meeting where he also announced a USD 12 billion aid package for domestic agricultural producers.

These developments coincided with a US trade delegation’s visit to India on December 10–11, where negotiations struggled to make headway amid disagreements over market access and tariff measures. The talks have been further complicated by Washington’s earlier decision in August 2025 to impose 50 per cent tariffs on most Indian goods, citing broader trade disputes and concerns over India’s purchases of Russian oil.

ANI