Trump ‘sacrificed’ India ties: What are his family’s business interests in Pakistan?

Donald Trump is known to do the unpredictable and the impossible. And the American leader has done just that when it comes to India-US ties. After more than two decades of effort to transform the relationship between New Delhi and Washington, the US president is now in the process of dismantling this painstakingly built relationship by waging a tariff war.

This move has got many Americans angry and upset. There are the Democrats who note that Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports will “hurt Americans” and “sabotage the US-India” ties.

There are also former US administration officials who have voiced their concerns about Trump’s tariff tantrums. For instance, Trump’s former National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton has said that Trump “has shredded decades of efforts” made by the West to strengthen diplomatic and strategic ties with India with his “disastrous” tariffs.

And now, Jake Sullivan, who served as NSA in the Joe Biden administration, has also slammed Trump over his trade moves, warning that it risks undoing years of work to bring New Delhi closer to Washington, and instead pushes it into Beijing’s orbit.

In an interview, he further noted that “due to Pakistan’s willingness to engage in business deals with the Trump family, Trump has sidelined the India relationship. This is a major strategic setback because a strong India-US partnership serves our core interests”.

This begs the question: What are Trump’s business interests in Pakistan?

What did Sullivan actually say on Trump?

Sullivan, who is a former White House official, appeared on The Bulwark podcast and told Tim Miller that Trump’s hefty tariffs against India was of particular concern, and even blaming the US president for damaging the reputation of the American brand.

“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 US brand is in the toilet and China is looking like a more responsible player,” Sullivan said on the podcast.

Speaking specifically on the tariffs levied on India, Sullivan added, “We were working to try to build a deeper, sustainable relationship with India, 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, I guess maybe we have to go show up in Beijing and sit with the Chinese because we’ve got a hedge against America.”

“The #American brand globally is in the toilet” : Former US NSA Jake Sullivan pic.twitter.com/YcfvxTmzMz

— IDU (@defencealerts) August 29, 2025

In a separate MeidasTouch YouTube channel, Sullivan also alleged that Trump sidelined the partnership with India due to Pakistan’s “willingness to engage in business deals with the Trump family.”

The response came when the host questioned him about Trump family’s Bitcoin business with Pakistan and Tim Cook’s Apple factories in India. To this, Sullivan responded, “I think this is one of the more under-reported stories in Trump’s foreign policy, and I’m really glad that you raised it.

“Donald Trump has thrown the relationship with India away. Germany or Japan will look at India and say that could be us tomorrow. America’s friends will think that they can’t rely on us in any way,” says former U.S. NSA Jake Sullivan pic.twitter.com/rZ9tJ0tgZH

— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) September 1, 2025

“Now, in no small part, I think because of Pakistan’s willingness to do business deals with the Trump family, he has thrown the India relationship over the side. That is a huge strategic harm in its own right because a strong US-India relationship serves our interests,” Sullivan added.

Does Trump have business links to Pakistan?

Before being the US president, Trump touted himself as one of America’s greatest businessmen and it appears that he hasn’t let his businessman mentality go after entering the White House.

And it’s this business mindedness that has got Trump closer to Pakistan. In April, just five days after the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 tourists, Pakistan signed a preliminary deal with World Liberty Financial, a decentralised finance company 60 per cent owned by the Trump family, to boost blockchain technology.

According to The Dawn, a World Liberty delegation even met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir to formalise a “Letter of Intent… to accelerate blockchain innovation, stablecoin adoption and decentralised finance integration across Pakistan.”

Interestingly, World Liberty Financial lists Trump as ‘Chief Crypto Advocate’, whereas the US president’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr, are ‘Web3 Ambassadors’, and Barron Trump as ‘DeFi Visionary’.

This business venture has raised doubts over ethics and conflict of interest. As Robert Weissman, copresident of consumer rights non-profit Public Citizen, told The Wired, “It is foreign policy for sale and justice for sale.”

But when asked about it, the White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said, “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”

But Trump’s business ties to Pakistan don’t end here. A known US businessman Gentry Thomas Beach has been pushing for business deals in Islamabad and he is known to have close ties to the Trump family, namely Donald Trump Jr. The two of them met at the Wharton School of Business and regularly go hunting together.

In January, Beach, who is a Texas-based hedge fund manager, chairman of White-Bridge Global, and cofounder of Highground Holdings and Valence Chemicals, visited Pakistan for a two-day visit. As part of the visit, Beach met with senior Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, as well as business leaders. He then announced a multi-billion-dollar investment in the sector through his holding company, White Bridge Real Estate.

Additionally, White Bridge and a firm called Apex Energy also signed a deal to explore placer gold deposits near the Indus River.

Following his visit, at an event in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Beach described Pakistan as a “totally misunderstood place in the world”. He emphasised that Pakistan had made tremendous sacrifices fighting terrorism and deserved global recognition for its efforts. Seeking to reshape the narrative surrounding Pakistan’s role in counterterrorism, he called its leaders “some of the world’s finest people”.

Trump has also announced that the US has signed a deal with Pakistan to develop its “massive oil reserves”. “We have just concluded a deal with the country of Pakistan, whereby Pakistan and the United States will work together on developing their massive oil reserves,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

What do other experts say on Trump and India tariffs?

And it’s not just Sullivan who has raised concerns about Trump’s trade war with India. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has served under President Barack Obama, last week made a scathing criticism of Trump’s policies, observing, “Great nations don’t necessarily exhibit greatness by giving people ultimatums all the time without sort of a genuine diplomatic effort.”

US foreign policy expert Christopher Padilla had also warned that the tariffs could raise questions on America’s reliability, while top US economist Jeffrey Sachs had called his punitive tariffs against India “the stupidest tactical move in US foreign policy”.

We wonder if Trump is listening.

With inputs from agencies

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