Has India's 'Yes, Sir' Diplomacy Reduced New Delhi's Stature in Trump's Global Power Game?

In the past few days, not once but twice, Donald Trump has made a rather bold claim: that India is ready to cut 100% of its tariffs for the United States. First on Fox News, and then again during his visit to Doha, Trump asserted that India will cut 100% tariffs – because, in his words, “Everybody wants to make a deal with America.”

Later, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar clarified that no such agreement has been finalised — at least not yet.

Trump also said that he told Apple CEO Tim Cook not to manufacture in India, claiming “India can take care of itself.”

What exactly gives Trump the confidence that India will bend to his demands? Perhaps the silence from our prime minister so far.

A question can be raised: how is Trump going about ordering the heads of private companies and the leaders of other sovereign nations? What right does he have? Is it his strategy to bully and pressure others into compliance?

Some people dismiss Trump as a madman, someone who’s disrupted the entire global order. Others call him a sharp negotiator and a no-nonsense businessman. But look deeper, and you’ll see that he’s only an agent of a superpower trying to save both its geopolitical dominance and a declining economy.

An imperialist state's contradictions

To understand Trump’s trade and his tariff negotiations, we need to understand how an imperialist state functions in the modern day. The US has had a long history of using sanctions and bans as tools of power. Take China, for instance. American companies like Nvidia have been prohibited from selling chips to Chinese firms – all in an effort to slow China’s progress in AI.

But such efforts don’t always work. Earlier this year, China’s DeepSeek AI launched, and Nvidia’s stock dropped 17%. And recently despite the sanctions, Huawei went ahead and launched a new laptop with its own operating system.

This exposes a deep contradiction. The US keeps preaching free market principles, but doesn’t follow them itself. It rarely behaves like an equal partner.

It’s not as if the world was operating on equal trade terms before this. For years, the global trade system has been skewed against the Global South. These countries have faced sanctions, while their natural resources have been systematically extracted to fuel development elsewhere.

Let’s take oil as an example. The world’s largest oil reserves are in Venezuela – 303 billion barrels – followed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Canada, and Iraq. The US, with only 55 billion barrels, ranks ninth. Yet when it comes to actual oil production and refining, the US tops the list, and Venezuela is nowhere to be seen. It’s the same when you look at oil consumption – the US is at the very top.

The same story plays out with natural gas reserves. Historically, remember how Britain’s cotton textile industry boomed during colonisation? The industrial revolution there was powered by cotton – which wasn’t grown in Britain, but in colonies like India. Indian farmers toiled to grow the cotton, which fuelled British industry. It was free labour and cheap resources from colonies that drove Western prosperity.

Even today, there’s a clear power imbalance between the West and the Global South. The resources come from here, but the development happens there. We provide the cheap labor, they reap the luxury. We manufacture low-cost goods, while they consume endlessly. This is the old world order – unnatural, unequal, and unjust. This is exactly what Trump is now fighting to preserve through tariffs and pressure deals.

Some of these deals are happening with handshakes, others through arm-twisting. Look at Elon Musk’s Starlink project. India is fast-tracking its rollout and reportedly it has already received a license from the Department of Telecom. But it’s not just India — Trump is pushing every country facing tariffs to sign deals with Starlink.

For decades, developing countries were told that neoliberal free trade would surge exports, bring foreign exchange, and increase employment. But clearly, these principles aren’t working in America anymore – that’s why Trump is pushing ‘Make in America’.

So what's new this time?

What Trump is doing differently this time is uniting the global elite. Traditionally, US foreign policy hasn’t exactly been generous toward the Arab nations. But Trump seems to be changing that. For his first state visit, in his second term, he chose to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. On the first day a $600 billion deal with Saudi, including $142 billion in weapons sales was announced. The White House claimed the total deal value could reach $2 trillion, though experts say that the number could be inflated.

Over 30 top American private company representatives joined Trump on this visit – including Elon Musk, the CEOs, and COOs of Google, IBM, Uber, OpenAI, Boeing, Amazon, and Coca-Cola among others. From India, Mukesh Ambani was also present. You might remember, Ambani also attended Trump’s presidential inauguration. Reliance already has strong business ties with both the US and Qatar. Qatar Investment Authority has reportedly invested $1 billion in Ambani’s retail business. Even while discussions of ceasefire were taking place back home, Ambani was seen shaking hands with Trump.

It’s clear – today’s global leaders behave less like national leaders and more like corporate reps. The White House even published a piece where more than 30 CEOs and founders publicly thanked Trump for the deals made.

Trump, on his part, didn’t leave empty-handed. The Qatari government offered him a luxury Boeing 747 to fly in. If sources are to be believed, it seems like Trump has somehow coaxed the Qatari govt into offering him the jet! Later, he praised the Saudi and Qatari leadership, posted videos of the visit on his social media and called everyone his friend.

'Yes, sir' diplomacy

But what about his original friend – India? Haven’t we gone to the extremes, including building temples in his honour? How can he ask his good friend Modi to cut all the tariffs?

Recently, US vice-president J.D. Vance visited India, but details of the visit are still unclear. From the outside, India is starting to look less like an equal trading partner and more like a junior partner – one that simply nods along and says, “Yes.”

And this “yes, sir” diplomacy comes at a cost for all Indian citizens. Moreover there is a new blow.  A new Republican fiscal bill proposes a 5% tax on every international remittance sent by non-citizens. In FY 2023-24 alone, Indians sent back $32 billion from the US. That means this tax could earn the US $1.6 billion a year – from Indians.

Think about that. Indian students take loans, study abroad, work hard, and send money back home. And now that money will be taxed.

That’s not all. Trump even wants to impose 100% tariffs on films made outside the US. This could effectively block Indian films from entering American theatres – making it nearly impossible to release them there.

Right now, India and the US are in the middle of trade negotiations. The agreement is expected to be finalised between September and November. The question is – what kind of deal will be offered to a junior partner? 

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