India’s pushback to Trump ‘cataclysmic, transformational moment’: US analyst slams tariff move

American journalist and political commentator Rick Sanchez has blasted Washington’s move to impose tariffs on India over Russian oil imports, calling it a “disrespectful and ignorant policy.” Speaking to ANI, the host of The Sanchez Effect on Russia Today said the US was treating India “like schoolchildren who need to be told what to do,” even though New Delhi has shown it is “the big boy, not a schoolchild.”

“It’s a disrespectful and ignorant policy (of the Trump Administration)… Because they don’t understand the underpinnings of what caused the Ukraine war from the standpoint of Russia. The disrespectful part comes when you start treating a country like India with its history, resources and capabilities like a schoolchild. India’s the big boy, not a schoolchild,” Sanchez remarked.

He described New Delhi’s refusal to bow to pressure over oil imports as a defining moment. “When India looked back at the US and said, ‘You will not tell us who we can or cannot buy oil from,’ it was such a cataclysmic, transformational moment. Historians will one day look back and say, that’s when power started to truly decline from the old European-US order that ran the world since World War II,” he said.

Trump in July imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods and then slapped another 25 per cent in secondary tariffs on imports of Russian oil, raising the total duty to 50 per cent. Sanchez said such moves reflect how Trump often acts out of “vendettas, grudges, and non-scientific thinking.”

“Is Trump the kind of person who sometimes makes decisions based on grudges? Yes, of course he is,” Sanchez said, noting reports that the penalties stemmed in part from Trump’s frustration at not being allowed to mediate between India and Pakistan. He also dismissed as “absolutely laughable” Trump aide Peter Navarro’s claim that the Ukraine war was “PM Modi’s war.”

“When it comes to understanding geopolitics, especially from a Global-South community, my country is just so dumb… They know absolutely nothing about India’s history, or the relationship between India and China vis-à-vis Russia and Ukraine,” Sanchez added.

Sanchez suggested Trump’s pressure campaign may have pushed India closer to China and Russia, pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meetings with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin at the SCO Summit in Tianjin. “I sense that PM Modi didn’t make the full commitment to start this economic embrace until after he, and the Indian government, felt disrespected to the point where they started thinking it’s time to redevelop this relationship,” he said.

He contrasted Washington’s punitive stance toward India with its softer approach toward Beijing, the largest buyer of Russian oil. “There’s no rhyme or reason to who he sanctions or why… The United States knows it can’t be too harsh on China because if it rips China up, it rips itself up. It’s kind of like a double suicide. And I think Trump knows that,” Sanchez observed.

Earlier this month, India’s foreign ministry had called the tariffs “extremely unfortunate” and reaffirmed that its energy imports were guided by national interest and market factors. “We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable. India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests,” the MEA said in a statement.