Amidst criticism of US President Donald Trump for making Executive Directives a principal instrument of governance in a democratic dispensation, many announcements of the Trump Presidency seemed to be a part of the drive against bureaucratic corruption, avoidable administrative burden on the Government and an uncontrolled trade imbalance leading to a debt of $36 trillion on American economy.
Trump’s strategy of ‘Making America Great Again’ ( MAGA) through the call of America First, carries his inimitable style of functioning with bold, personalised and even hyperbolic statements being made of them, allowing for a near-offensive use of language against the opponents at home or those in the international arena.
Domestic opposition to Trump has been on the rise for this reason, and Elon Musk, once the closest confidante of the President who was put in charge of the all-powerful Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is presently his most bitter personal critic.
Since the US is still the largest economy and the only Superpower, its domestic, economic and foreign policies have to be carefully watched by India for framing its own geopolitical and economic strategies.
President Donald Trump cannot be faulted for declaring a National Emergency first on Immigration in January this year and then on Trade & Tariffs in April to deal with the two biggest problems facing the country. The first allowed the use of the US Army on the Southern border and called upon the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deploy special teams in all states to proactively detect illegal migrants, while the second was for pursuing reciprocity to rebuild the economy and restore national and economic security.
Additionally, the Secretary of Defence was allowed to divert military construction funds to projects designed to support the use of armed forces on the border. As regards foreign trade and economic practices, Trump declared that they had created a national emergency under which he would impose responsive tariffs to strengthen the international economic position of the US and ‘protect American workers’.
He contended that the absence of reciprocity in US trade relationships and other harmful policies like currency manipulation and exorbitant Value Added Tax(VAT) perpetuated by other countries had to be addressed immediately.
Trump has imposed a 10 per cent universal Tariff on trading partners, along with a reciprocal Tariff on several nations, depending upon the state of trade barriers with a particular country.
The Tariff windfall reportedly created a US budget surplus of $27 billion in June 2025 alone. Trump has encouraged countries to negotiate bilateral deals on tariffs, climbing down from the arbitrariness that his earlier pronouncements betrayed.
Trump’s Tariff policies were becoming a significant source of government revenue, and many policymakers in the US hope that the country will rise with less debt, with a more efficient private sector and with better preparations for trading in a fair international system.
President Trump is trying, as a matter of policy, to pull back Washington’s security umbrella and to distribute more evenly the cost of supplying key global public goods by way of aid and defence in order to upend both US and global economy.
Since the end of World War-II, the US economy and financial system have been at the centre of global markets as the only reliable driver of world economic growth. The US has led in productivity-enhancing innovations such as Artificial Intelligence, Life Sciences and Robotics.
The dollar is still the world’s reserve currency. Countries are now trying to insulate themselves from the policy volatility in Washington and Trump was conscious of it. He is seeing Europe trying to improve its regional standing and seeking more robust economic relationships with Africa, Asia and Latin America. China had stepped up pursuing the economic route to becoming the second superpower. After nearly 80 years the global trading system is at risk of fragmentation. The US, however, is still the most powerful and prosperous country in the world, with the advantage of having mature institutions. For India this is the time for developing self-reliance, ‘make in India’ initiatives and bilateralism in trade with the US based on mutual benefits.
Trump has got the GOP to cancel $9 billion in Approved Spending of Congress as part of his policy of clawing back funding of foreign and humanitarian programmes as well as public broadcasting. Through Rescissions Act of 2025, Trump has sought to put SAGE’s recommendations into law. Trump’s supporters say this was promoting responsible spending that put US interests first, whereas critics felt that this would undermine the US’s global leadership and disrupt programmes that delivered support internationally.
In a further move to save government spending, Trump has got the Department of Education(DOE) to resume interest accrual on 7 million student loan borrowings from August 1, 2025, but without retrospective effect. DOE has also opened investigations against some universities for the alleged exclusion by them of US-born students in favour of ‘illegal migrants’ under a scheme. This is in pursuance of President Trump’s America First agenda.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has emailed notices to a total of nearly half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans for deportation -they had been allowed to stay in US for two years under the ‘humanitarian parole’ programme of the Biden Administration. President Trump is being ruthless about dismantling the ecosystem of illegal migration to the US, and India has, in principle, extended support to this endeavour. He is trying to stop every expenditure on third-country projects, including those of ‘humanitarian aid’.
President Trump has taken a policy line that US will pull out of the world bodies like the UN Agencies that put financial burden on the country without serving any American interests. He announced withdrawal from WHO earlier this year and this has been followed by a joint statement of Marco Rubio Secretary of State, and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on July 18, rejecting the Amendments issued by WHO in 2024 in the name of Pandemic Emergency to strengthen global preparedness for public health contingencies.
The statement objected to the said amendments that ‘compelled countries to adopt digital health documents and elevated political issues such as solidarity rather than taking quick and efficient action’. It asserted that ‘ our agencies will continue to put Americans first in all their actions and will not tolerate international policies that infringe on American speech, privacy or personal liberties’.
The statement went on to say that the amendments ‘risk unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy’. It is significant that Trump had alleged Chinese dominance on WHO - his approach to international bodies reflects his desire to correct geopolitical balance in favour of US.
President Trump has now ordered the withdrawal of US from UNESCO as well. India as a major world power, has no issues with President Trump’s strategies and would deal with them with its own line of keeping Indian national interests on top of the agenda.
India must continue to share its deep concerns with US over the Sino-Pak axis that primarily worked against this country and should not feel disconcerted with the legacy of Pentagon maintaining a friendly relationship with Pakistani Generals.
Any irritants thrown in by Trump in the context of Indo-Pak military confrontation that followed the Pahalgam terror attack or in matters of trade & tariff can be handled without fouling up India-US long term friendship.
India’s approach to Indo-US relations must be set by an acknowledgement on both sides that the two countries were the largest tested democracies of the world and their friendship had a natural side to it. Whatever posed a threat to the democratic world as a whole such as terrorism, dictatorships and international crime like drug trafficking, brought them strategically together.
All bilateral issues such as trade, tariff and grant of US visas can be handled through negotiations- notwithstanding the pressure tactics used by Trump for having his way.
There is enough scope for give and take between India and US even as the two countries fiercely safeguarded their national interests.
India should assert its sovereign right to import defence equipment and energy from any trading partner and maintain its stand on international issues at competitive forums like BRICS and QUAD.
Politically and economically, the world has a multi-polar order in spite of the US supremacy as a superpower and President Trump’s strategy of America First offered a new opportunity to a major country like India to reset its international relations. A good course for India is to develop its domestic market for its own growth, build bilateral friendships for sustaining mutual security and economic interests and take a non-aligned view on the world’s trouble spots.