Trump's Top Trade Advisor's ‘Racist’ Attack: Modi Photo In Saffron Robes In Peter Navarro's Latest Tirade On India-Russia Oil Trade

Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro escalated his attacks on India with a racially tinged thread on X, ending with a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in saffron robes and the claim: “The road to peace in Ukraine runs through New Delhi.”

Navarro, who earlier this week branded the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war,” accused India of acting as an “oil money laundromat for the Kremlin.”

He alleged that politically connected refiners are buying discounted Russian crude, processing it, and exporting fuels worldwide, while Russia pockets hard currency to sustain its invasion.

“India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the world’s largest democracy into a massive refining hub,” he wrote, asserting that proceeds from these exports flow to “politically connected energy titans.”

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Navarro linked his criticism to US President Donald Trump’s newly imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, describing them as both a trade and national security response.

He claimed that US consumers fund India’s oil purchases through a $ 50 billion trade deficit, while Indian tariffs keep American exports out.

The attack drew scrutiny not just for its substance but also for its symbolism.

By circulating a saffron-clad image of Modi to underscore his argument, Navarro’s post was seen by critics as carrying orientalist and racial undertones.

The irony, however, remains: much of India’s refined fuel from Russian crude flows to Europe, a key US ally, raising questions about why Washington is targeting New Delhi while leaving Beijing, Russia’s far bigger energy partner, untouched.

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