During his first presidency, US President Donald Trump shocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi by telling him, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” Modi’s expression gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation, according to the book “A very Stable Genius” authored by Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig. The book says that Trump’s ignorance of India-China relationship set back India-US diplomatic ties. But then how many Americans read geography other than their Think Tanks who are always planning on how to destabilize regions years in advance? When Trump accuses India of fueling the war in Ukraine, he not only doesn’t take into account how much Russian products (oil/gas included) the US, Europe and Ukraine are buying, but also how many wars the US has waged and fueled globally, mostly without approval of the UNSC and at times even without consent of the Congress. Some years back, Willaim Blum also exposed America’s dirty face, as well as its poodle – Britain.
Trump’s antics in his second presidency have shocked the world, most Americans included. It is not greed alone for making money for himself and his family (as was commented upon after his visit to the Middle East) but goes much beyond. Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig must be repenting why they titled their book “A Very Stable Genius” when Trump is highly unstable. Trump’s behavioral mystery was unraveled in the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” published in October 2017, wherein 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts assessed Trump as dangerous.
A forensic psychiatrist dealing with violent criminals concluded: Trump is now the most powerful head of state in the world, and one of the most impulsive, arrogant, ignorant, disorganised, chaotic, nihilistic, self-contradictory, self-important, and self-serving. He has his finger on the triggers of a thousand or more of the most powerful thermonuclear weapons in the world. That means he could kill more people in a few seconds than any dictator in past history has been able to kill during his entire years in power.’
That was in 2017. Trump is now far more dangerous. His assessment included the following: diagnosed as a sociopath who is a danger for the world; an iimpulsive, immature, incompetent person who when in the position of ultimate power would easily slide into the role of a tyrant; his sociopath characteristics are undeniable; he presents a profound threat to democracy; highly evil man exhibiting malignant narcissism and if left unchecked, his pathological narcissism could lead to WW 3. Of course, officially no one dare say this because Trump will simply have them killed – this being far more dangerous than the Epstein files implicating Trump – the true version of which he will never allow to be made public. With Ghislaine Maxwell moved to minimum security prison, are her days numbered? Trump’s latest act of taking over Washington DC Metropolitan Police is being viewed as a dictatorial mad-dog act with violent crime in the State at a 30-year low.
It is natural for a sociopath and egotistical person like Trump to stab in the back anyone getting close to him, unless of course it is a woman that Trump is eyeing. Modi did the unprecedented in canvassing for Trump on American soil, sloganeering Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar, and later a grand welcome to Trump, also praising his daughter and son-in-law at the Sardar Patel Stadium (renamed Narendra Modi Stadium) in Ahmedabad to an audience of 100,000. But when Modi attended the September 2024 Quad Summit in the US chaired by then President Joe Biden, he didn’t meet Trump who had announced in advance that Modi will be meeting him. Modi’s advisers probably assessed Trump couldn’t win the presidential race. But for megalomaniac Trump this was a hot iron slap on his face. Little wonder he is hugging Pakistan so closely.
It was amusing to see Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir’s recent threat, saying, “If Pakistan is provoked or faces an existential threat, we will take half the world down with us." With this sabre rattling in Tampa near Florida, Trump’s home place, Munir looked like a small chihuahua in Trump’s champagne goblet. He didn’t specify that the half world he would take down excludes the US, and that US nukes would be used for the purpose. Michael Rubin, former Pentagon official says Munir is Osama bin-Laden in uniform, but the Trump Administration has nothing to say about Munir’s threat; which would intensify regional tensions and raise global security concerns, albeit Munir knows long before he can take down half the world, there would be no Pakistan. He would remember what India’s 19th Indian Army Chief had once said.
There are opinions in the media crediting Munir with knowing how to handle the US, but it needs no intelligence to decipher that Munir’s outburst was a script handed over to him by Washington. Being another concubine of the US (like Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh), he perhaps got more uppity in saying he will fire 10 missiles if India built a dam on Indus River; probably India did not cancel the Indus Water Treaty but only holds it “in abeyance”. China has no water sharing treaty with any lower riparian states and there is no reason India should have any such treaty with Pakistan or Bangladesh. Munir also says he will target the Reliance refinery in Gujarat. By branding the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) a Foreign Terrorist Organization (BLA), if Trump thinks he can wean Pakistan away from China, it won’t work albeit China supports Pakistan’s genocide in Balochistan. But any help that Munir offers to the US for hindering the CPEC and its extension into Afghanistan and beyond will not be tolerated by Beijing. Another reason for Trump cozying up to Munir is to rebuild security of the Middle East in a manner advantageous to the US, using Pakistan
Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on India, and the spectre of additional tariffs remains because India is a member of BRICS. But Trump has put off tariffs on China for another 90 days because China holds him by the scruff of his neck with the Rare Earth Elements (REE) deal that Trump was so desperate for. Moreover, Trump’s tariffs will boomerang against the US economy, making the cost of living more expensive for US citizens, while the BRICS expansion is unstoppable, having already expanded in 2024 and many more countries wanting to join.
But Trump listens to none other than the US deep state who is allowing him to run amok. How the US undermined the economies of Southeast Asian countries makes a case study: tariffs on goods, including steel, aluminium, autos, and auto parts, negatively impacting export-oriented economies, even after years of discussions about market access; US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) weakening the trade architecture; preference for non-transparent bilateral deals over regional agreements to exercise greater American leverage; Washington’s own security concerns undermining regional economic priorities and creating dissent within ASEAN nations; American double standards in imposing tariffs while simultaneously seeking to address trade imbalances under the garb of fair trade; US policies creating imbalance in Southeast Asian countries who must maintain a balanced relationship with both the US and China.
There is surprise in many quarters how someone like Trump has been elected as the POTUS. But the fact is that the bigger the nincompoop, the easier it is for America’s deep state to make him dance to their tune, and Trump is now their favourite underdog. India’s strategic autonomy is anathema to the American deep state. But the fact is that India’s economic growth is considered worse than that. Hence, the CIA-orchestrated coup in Bangladesh and personal cultivation of Asim Munir. Pakistan was created by the US-led West to keep India in check.
As mentioned in these columns earlier, the Pahalgam massacre on April 22, 2025, was obviously engineered by Pakistan with the blessings of Washington. It would also be foolish to assume that in the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Pakistan did not have the support of the US. The fact that the detonators and timers used in the 1993 Mumbai train blasts were supplied by the US itself speaks volumes (https://www.rediff.com/news/report/raman/20030314.htm).
Now the US State Department states that the US wants good relations with both India and Pakistan, more of counter-terrorism cooperation with the latter. But who are they fooling; this nonsense of counter-terrorism cooperation while Pakistan has gone ahead and launched 15 new terror camps post Operation ‘Sindoor’ (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/isi-launches-15-terror-camps-post-operation-sindoor/). The Trump Administration might as well shed its shyness and reveal what is the plan for destabilizing India using Pakistan-Bangladesh, including the timetable for launching Ghazwa-e-Hind.
Modi is scheduled to attend the UNGA meet next month. Whether a Modi-Trump meet will take place in the US remains ambiguous. But normalization of the bilateral relationship is not going to be easy with trade talks suspended till the tariffs issue is resolved and the continued threatening posture of Trump. Trump is reportedly also riled over the telephonic conversation between Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in run up to the Trump-Putin meet in Alaska on August 15. In response to Trump’s tariffs, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the move “unjustified, unfair and unreasonable,” vowing that India will “take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and energy security” of its 1.4 billion people.
The media heralded this a diplomatic triumph and victory and an appropriate counter strike. But would India impose tariffs on the US like say Canada and Oregon have? For that matter, why are we not introducing tariffs to Chinese exports to India when Chinese imports are highly subsidized? But this doesn’t appear feasible although Indian exports to the US account for 2.2% of its GDP and key sectors like electronics, pharma, and IT services are not under the 50% tariff threat. At the same time, labour-intensive sectors like farmers and textiles are greatly threatened.
The media reports of India having cancelled defence deals with the US are more of hype and misleading. No doubt there is opportunity for India to diversify but that too is not easy with China holding all the aces over India and Chinese President Xi Jinping being as shrewd as can be. An article Global Times, mouthpiece of China’s CCP; criticized America’s approach to its relationship with India, saying, “Perhaps, to the US, India may have never been a guest at the table – only an item on the menu. These are indeed difficult times for India.
The author is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed are personal.
