Trump put US-India partnership on the back burner to pursue family’s Pakistan deals, Jake Sullivan accuses

Former US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has accused Donald Trump of sidelining Washington’s partnership with India to advance his family’s financial interests in Pakistan.

Speaking on the MeidasTouch YouTube channel, Sullivan said the move represented “one of the most underreported aspects of Trump’s foreign policy.”

“For decades, on a bipartisan basis, the US has worked to strengthen its relationship with India, the world’s largest democracy—a country with which we should be aligned on technology, talent, economics, and in countering China’s strategic drift,” Sullivan said.

From India to Pakistan: Sullivan’s charge

Sullivan stressed that “significant progress had been made on that front,” only for Trump to undercut it.

“Now, largely 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,” he added.

Trump’s policies have raised eyebrows in New Delhi. His administration imposed a 50% tariff on Indian exports — the steepest against any country — while keeping Pakistan’s rate at just 19%. Publicly, Trump blamed trade deficits and India’s purchase of Russian oil, but the sudden escalation followed India’s rejection of his claim to have mediated in the Indo-Pak conflict earlier this year.

Islamabad, meanwhile, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and hosted his family-linked venture, World Liberty Financial, in a high-profile partnership with the Pakistan Crypto Council.

“Imagine being a Germany, a Japan, or a Canada and watching this unfold, one would think, ‘That could be us tomorrow’,” Sullivan remarked. “It only reinforces the idea that you must hedge against the US. If our allies conclude they cannot rely on us in any way, shape, or form, it is not in the best long-term interest of the American people.”

Also read: Trump’s tariff war puts US brand globally 'in the toilet' and pushes India closer to China: Jake Sullivan

Fallout of Trump’s tariff war

The 50% tariff offensive has done little to undermine India's economic prowess as the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the quarter ending June beat expections. Trump had previously called India a 'dead economy', a claim that has drawn widespread criticism for no link to reality.

Sullivan argued that the blowback was already visible. India and China, despite lingering tensions from the deadly 2020 Galwan Valley clash, recently pledged to intensify efforts to resolve their long-standing border dispute. Prime Minister Narendra Modi concludes his first visit to China in seven years.

Evan A. Feigenbaum, a former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, warned in Emissary that Trump’s approach could “unravel twenty-five years of work.” He described it as a toxic blend of “blunt coercion,” “gross interference,” and “a cynical effort to ‘blame India’.”

Beijing, meanwhile, has moved quickly to take advantage of the rift, easing curbs on fertilizer shipments to India and signalling a willingness to expand trade.

Henry Wang of the Center for China and Globalization noted that ties between New Delhi and Beijing are now in “an up cycle,” adding, “Trump’s tariff war on India has made India realize that they have to maintain some kind of strategic autonomy and strategic independence.”

Sullivan on America’s credibility crisis

Sullivan has been sounding broader alarms about America’s global standing. In a conversation with Tim Miller on The Bulwark Podcast, he called Trump’s India tariffs a “massive trade offensive” that risked driving New Delhi toward Beijing’s orbit.

“Take a look at India,” Sullivan said. “Here’s a country we were trying to build a deeper and more sustainable relationship with. Now you have got President Trump executing a massive trade offensive against them and the Indians are saying, ‘Well, I guess maybe we have to go show up in Beijing and sit with the Chinese because we’ve got to hedge against America.’”

He also painted a bleak picture of Washington’s reputation abroad: “When I go to these places now and I talk to leaders, they are talking about derisking from the United States. They now see the US as the big disruptor, the country that can’t be counted on. China has moved ahead of the United States in popularity in a whole lot of countries… the American brand globally is in the toilet.”

For Sullivan, the India case is the clearest warning of what lies ahead if America’s allies conclude Washington is no longer reliable. “What’s happening with India will have direct and reverberating effects across all of our relationships and partnerships worldwide,” he said.