Bumbling Presidency: How India, Russia, And Reality Mocked Donald Trump

The internet broke down last weekend when surreal news emerged that India had become the single largest supplier of diesel to Ukraine. Reeling in disbelief, it took our worthy netizens a while to realise the deeper significance of this news: much of this diesel was refined from crude oil imported into India from Russia.

As a result, you had the bizarre spectacle of a Ukrainian army fighting Russia on the battlefield, driven by Russian fuel. Even Lewis Carroll would not have been able to conjure such an unbelievable situation when composing Alice in Wonderland. The world had just slipped into the mother of all rabbit holes, mad hats and all.

That news was the cue for American president Donald Trump to go even more ballistic in his rantings against India and its supposed trade surplus vis-à-vis America. This was not true, since the latest figures actually show a three billion dollar trade surplus in America’s favour.

His knee-jerk response was to threaten even more tariffs on India for importing crude oil from an already sanctioned Russia, thereby further sanctioning Russia in an effort to twist its arm to end the war with Ukraine.

Competition in the surrealist sweepstakes was now growing to galactic proportions. Just look at the absurdity of Trump’s approach. He sought to sanction Russia into making peace with Ukraine by tariff-sanctioning an important strategic partner like India.

The response to that was viral clips of Russian president Vladimir Putin, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and their Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, chatting merrily with each other at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China.

Poor Donald Trump. Nothing was working out. Not his threats, not the name-calling of India in crude, casteist terms by his minions, nothing. You would actually feel sorry for him, but for the utter mess he has ill-advisedly created in global affairs.

Look at his predicament. He cannot fix America’s trade deficit with China by imposing tariffs on Beijing because that would trigger inflation in America. Since America imports so much from China, the landed costs of these goods would go up, impacting the average American consumer.

Try as he might to create a market for American oil and gas, he cannot prevent large volumes of discounted oil from being available for purchase on non-dollar terms. Two prominent examples are the continued sale of crude oil by Russia to India and the Chinese import of significant volumes of both crude oil and furnace oil from Iran, another nation heavily sanctioned by America.

He cannot refuse to sell jet engines to India for the Tejas fighter aircraft, as his predecessor Joe Biden disastrously tried, because that would only worsen relations between the two nations and simultaneously hurt American manufacturers. It would also make his task even more difficult in addressing the trade deficits he is obsessed with.

He could not prevent the signing of a fifteen-year agreement for the sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the United Arab Emirates to India. This is a clear threat to America’s current pole position on the global LNG sales leaderboard.

He cannot even get the European nations to toe the American line on forcing Ukraine to end its war with Russia. Not even after he called Ukrainian president Zelensky along with numerous European leaders to the White House and schooled them like an angry principal.

He could not prevent the SCO from issuing a unanimous joint declaration in Tianjin, of which Pakistan is a member. Trump is now trying to cosy up to Pakistan while balancing his relations with India. The declaration condemned America and Israel for bombing SCO partner nation Iran. Note that he could not even get Pakistan to abstain.

Worst of all, he could not prevent his own foreign minister, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, from contradicting him on India. Even as Trump grandly declared in his typical bumptious manner that trade relations with India were a "one-sided disaster", Rubio publicly stated a few hours later that Indo-American ties were the "defining partnership of the 21st century". The authors of Yes Prime Minister could not have written a more ludicrous script.

As a consequence, Trump’s second term in office has degenerated into what can only be termed a bumbling presidency. He has become an object of public derision, a fate far worse than being an object of hatred, because now his words have no value and no one will take him seriously. As Indian foreign minister Dr S. Jaishankar wittily said recently, predictability is at a premium in world affairs these days. And that is not a good thing.

If in his first term Trump was cautious and circumspect while remaining forceful and well-directed, in his second term he has ended up all at sea because he has tried to fight on too many fronts simultaneously, both foreign and domestic.

The net result is that he has become the epitome of helplessness. That is dangerous because it breeds severe frustration, forcing Trump to behave recklessly without thinking. On the other hand, if he backs off and eats humble pie, his position will take a severe beating globally.

It is a quandary entirely of his own making, driven by poor advice from his staff who do not understand the new India. International relations expert Jeffrey Sachs does, but Trump has yet to take his advice.

This situation is not good for the world, and certainly not for America. It has to stop, and soon. Perhaps it will. There is every indication that the American Supreme Court will strike down Trump’s tariff tantrums as unconstitutional. Until then, we will just have to suffer Trump’s furious ressentiment until better sense prevails.

As President Putin said recently, for all the American mayhem presently swirling across multiple seas and borders, the situation is unsustainable. Things will calm down soon, allowing traditional diplomacy to resume its functions. And then, all that will remain is Donald Trump’s congenital tendency to shoulder arms, to inswinging yorkers headed for middle stump, bowled at him by himself.