Jake Sullivan, who served as National Security Advisor under former US President Joe Biden, sharply criticised President Donald Trump's decision to impose sweeping 50 per cent tariffs on India, and asserted that Trump's aggressive trade actions shattered a longstanding bipartisan consensus on US-India relations.
Speaking to The Bulwark, Sullivan said the tariffs could push India to seek closer ties with China as a strategic counterbalance, remarking, “India might feel the need to show up in Beijing because they have to hedge against the U.S.”
“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,” Sullivan said in The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller. He added, “China has moved ahead of the United States in popularity in a whole lot of countries.”
He also warned that such moves are damaging America’s global reputation, stating that the “American brand globally is in the toilet.”
Sullivan further noted, “Take a look at India, as another example. Here's a country that on a bipartisan basis, we were working and trying to build a deeper and more sustainable relationship with, and the China challenge loomed large in that. 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 got a hedge against America’.”