Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has claimed that Donald Trump’s once-close personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faded.
His remarks come as Trump’s 50% tariff on goods from India took effect on August 27. Trump initially imposed a 25% tariff, citing unfair trade practices, followed by an additional 25% penalty over New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
“Trump had a very good relationship personally with Modi. I think that’s gone now. It’s a lesson to everybody, for example, Keir Starmer, that a good personal relationship may help at times, but it won’t protect you from the worst,” Bolton said in a post on X.
Trump Pushing PM Modi Closer To Russia, China
This is not the first time Bolton has criticized Trump for imposing an unprecedented 25% tariff on India imports for its purchase of Russian oil.
Earlier, Bolton accused Trump of hurting US-India ties, saying high tariffs on Indian goods were pushing Prime Minister Modi closer to Russia and China.
In a post on X, Bolton stated, “The White House has set U.S.-India relations back decades, pushing Modi closer to Russia and China. Beijing has cast itself as an alternative to the U.S. and Donald Trump.”
Former US official John Bolton was Donald Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 during Trump’s first term as president. He resigned from the post after differences with Trump over the administration’s foreign policy.
The comments follow the conclusion of the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Council summit in Tianjin, China, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi held separate bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines.
China’s Looking More Responsible
Last month, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan criticized Donald Trump’s trade policies, asserting that heavy tariffs against India are harming America’s international reputation and making China appear more reliable on the global stage.
“China has moved ahead of the United States in popularity in a whole lot of countries, and that was not the case one year ago, where countries now are basically, you know, saying the U.S. brand is in the toilet, and China’s looking like, actually, in a bizarre way, a more responsible player. So that’s one of the big things that I hear from my friends who continue to work in these governments in Europe, in Asia,” Sullivan told Tim Miller on The Bulwark podcast.
Sullivan said, “Take a look at India as another example. I mean, here’s a country that on a bipartisan basis, we were working to try to build a deeper and more sustainable relationship with, and the China challenge loomed large in that. Now you’ve got President Trump executing a massive trade offensive against them, and the Indians are saying, well, shit, I guess maybe we have to go show up in Beijing and sit with the Chinese, because we’ve got a hedge against America.”
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