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US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose high tariffs on Indian goods garnered major backlash from the Democrats during a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. The Democratic lawmakers warned that Trump’s tariff regime and confrontational approach toward New Delhi could inflict long-term damage on one of America’s most vital alliances.
During the hearing by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia on the US–India strategic partnership, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a ranking Democratic member, accused Trump of unravelling decades of bipartisan progress.
She insisted that the former US President Joe Biden’s government had handed Trump “a bilateral relationship at the height of its strength,” citing “a revitalised Quad, a budding defence tech partnership and a trusted supply chain partner,” only for it to be “flush, flush, flush down the toilet.”
‘Trump will be the American president who lost India’
Representative Dove went on to warn that history may judge Trump harshly over the matter. “Unless he changes course, Trump will be the American President who lost India,” she said. “You do not get a Nobel Peace Prize by driving strategic partners into the arms of our adversaries," she furthered.
The Democratic lawmaker emphasised how the “tariff rate on India is currently higher than the tariff rate on China,” describing the whole policy as self-defeating.
During the hearing, Democrats also accused Trump of attacking people-to-people ties by imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, “70 per cent of which are held by Indians.” Dove called the move “a rebuke of the incredible contributions Indians have made” in the US.
Lawmakers cautioned that tariffs risk overshadowing urgent strategic priorities, including countering China and stabilising supply chains.
Hence, the hearing made clear that the tariff confrontation has become the most politically charged issue in the US–India relationship and one with broad geopolitical consequences.
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During the congressional hearing, Dove also displayed the now-famous car selfie of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. She used it as a warning that Washington is pushing India closer to Moscow — and that it is the United States, not New Delhi, undermining the partnership.
“Trump’s policies towards India can only be described as cutting our nose to spite our face,” Kamlager-Dove said, arguing that the administration’s pressure tactics are doing “real and lasting damage to the strategic trust and mutual understanding between our two countries.”
“This poster is worth a thousand words. You do not get a Nobel Peace Prize by driving US strategic partners into the arms of our adversaries,” she added. Pointing at the poster, she reiterated that the moment should be seen as a “wake-up call for Washington”. “Because let me be clear: being a coercive partner has a cost,” she said.
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