The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

India-US Relations Hit Another Bump

Trump’s reposting of a podcaster’s description of India as a “hellhole” is the latest of several insults from Washington.

India-U.S. ties, once hailed as the defining partnership of the 21st century, have hit yet another bump, following President Donald Trump’s implied endorsement of comments by conservative commentator Michael Savage that referenced India and China as “hellholes.”

“A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the ​entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” Savage ⁠said, according to a four-page transcript that Trump put out on his Truth Social media platform.

Savage’s comments were aimed at Indians and Chinese allegedly exploiting U.S. birthright citizenship. Although Trump did not add any remarks of his own to Savage’s comment, his reposting was seen in India as tacit approval.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs initially seemed inclined to let the comments pass. “We have seen some reports. That’s where I leave it,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told a regular news briefing.

Later, however, Jaiswal issued a sharply worded response that said the “remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste. They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-U.S. relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests.” The statement did not name the U.S. president.

The “hellhole” comment and Trump’s reposting of the remarks sparked a furor in India, with the main opposition Congress party calling them “extremely insulting and anti-Indian.”

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up this matter with the U.S. President and register a strong objection,” the party said in a post on X.

Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has run an aggressive campaign against what he deems to be illegal immigration into the United States. He has been particularly harsh in criticizing the H1B visa program that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals in “specialty occupations,” which is favored by Indian IT professionals.

Last year, more than 1,000 Indians were deported home on U.S. charter aircraft, handcuffed and shackled. The Modi government remained silent and did not object to the Trump administration’s treatment of them. Instead, given that Modi was to meet Trump at the White House a week later, it took a conciliatory position. The government told parliament on February 6 that India was in favor of legal mobility and discouraged illegal movement of people across borders.

Trump’s reposting of the “hellhole” comments caps a series of events in his second term that have badly strained the once rapidly warming and close ties that successive administrations in India and the U.S. have put considerable efforts into nurturing for a quarter of a century.

In August 2025, the Trump administration slapped India with a 25 percent tariff penalty for buying discounted Russian oil, on top of the 25 percent “reciprocal tariffs” it had imposed earlier on India for running a trade surplus with the U.S.

The tariffs prompted outrage in India for several reasons. For one, the 25 percent reciprocal tariffs were announced even as India and the United States were holding talks on a trade deal. For another, the punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian oil were seen as steep and unfair. The cumulative 50 percent tariffs made India among the most heavily tariffed by the U.S.

Sharp attacks from Trump’s officials like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Senior Trade Counsellor Peter Navarro further vitiated the atmosphere between the two countries. Navarro, for instance, labeled the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war,” adding that New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil was fueling Moscow’s military aggression. “They don’t need the oil. It’s a refining profit-sharing scheme. It’s a laundromat for the Kremlin. That’s the reality of that,”........

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