Learning to live with Trump’s America

Jeffrey Sachs is an eminent American economist, and like several other erudite Americans, is a trenchant critic of US President Donald Trump. Speaking to an audience in Kolkata, he said: “Trump does not represent America. He is not good for America. He is not good for India.”

Continuing in the same vein, he also said: “I know Trump had best relations with PM Modi and they had occasions together. Many in India felt this is the best relationship… but frankly, don’t ally with the United States; it is not India’s best course right now.”

On Christmas Eve, commerce minister Piyush Goyal was quoted as saying India was close to an “initial trade framework deal”, a cautious framing, remarkably thin on substance and not altering the reality that the punitive 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to the US are still in force.

It’s especially awkward for India that the Trump administration’s cold vibes, its apparent sidelining of India in America’s new global calculus should have come after all the hugging and kissing and grandstanding about the special relationship with ‘a dear friend’. Modi’s diplomacy was personality focused in the extreme, and with the object of his fascination turning his back on him, it’s looking like the all the diplomatic capital India had earned since the 1990s has suddenly evaporated.

The freeze has affected outwardly mobile Indians as well. From the standpoint of those chasing dreams of a career and life in America, the clampdown on H-1B visas is nothing short of distressing. The US embassy in Delhi has announced delays even in renewing visas. There is greater scrutiny of H-1B and H4 visa applicants, of their social media footprint, and there has been mass rescheduling/cancellation of visa appointments.

Stories abound of San Francisco-based techies not only losing their jobs because they may not be able to return to the US for a year, but jeopardising ownership of homes they had bought in America in the expectation of an extended stay, if not a life, in that country.

One was quoted in media as saying: “I came to India for my wedding in January 2026 but I’m now stranded till 2027.” The US state department stated: “We encourage applicants to apply as early as they can and anticipate additional processing time.”

As for the scrutiny of applicants’ social media profiles, the US state department confirmed these activities were being vetted to avoid ‘abuse of the H-1B program’. Even tourist visa applications are being scrutinised, and it’s possible that people hoping to visit, say for the 2026 football World Cup, will arrive at US airports and still be debarred entry, if some traces of their online criticism of Trump or his administration pop up at any stage of the process.

Trouble at home

After all the belligerence of the first several months of his second term, it looks like Trumpism is seriously threatened from within. His decision to weaponise tariffs has predictably spiked inflation. An average American’s cost of food and healthcare has soared, and even his diehard supporters (read: MAGA base) are disillusioned. Opinion polls show that his popularity is tumbling.

He has struggled to introduce legislation despite majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A growing number of Republican lawmakers are now worried that supporting him could affect their own prospects of returning in next November’s mid-term elections. To get around the lack of support, Trump is governing through executive orders, which have limited longevity if not ratified by the bicameral Congress.

Trump has tried to distract Americans with his ‘America First’ rhetoric and strongman foreign affairs moves, which don’t always require Congressional endorsement. He poses as a global peacemaker — including running a campaign to sell his eligibility for the Nobel Peace Prize — even as he continues to support Israel, bombs Iraq and tries to engineer a regime change in Venezuela. (That’s not an exhaustive list.)

Even his approach to the four-year Russia–Ukraine war is not really to end the war and restore peace but to carve the conflict as a business opportunity. His negotiators are not trained diplomats but businessmen — friend Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. With the West divided, Russia has never had it so good.

The impact of Trump’s tilt towards Russia is that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to cede nearly a fifth of his country as an autonomous or independent demilitarised and free economic zone. In other words, Russian president Vladimir Putin will likely have his cake and eat it too.

Trump’s National Security Strategy 2025 lays emphasis on the Americas, where there is no challenge to US hegemony. Packaged as a war on narco-terrorism, he is bent on effecting a regime change in oil-rich Venezuela. A war powers resolution is on the cards, and while Democrat lawmakers are trying to canvass support from Republicans to stop another US regime-change war, it will not be surprising if such a motion is passed in the New Year.

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But the biggest potential destabiliser for Trump are the files pertaining to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which have been declassified following an enactment by Congress. The US department of justice has so far released a tranche with significant redactions, in the name of protecting victims but without any explanatory notes, as mandated by American law. Congressmen are prepared to go to court to ensure compliance.

No matter how hard Trump tries to distance himself from Epstein — who died by suicide in prison — it is abundantly clear the two were buddies before they fell out. The little nugget that Trump travelled at least eight times on Epstein’s private jet between 1993 and 1996 is revealing enough.

Besides, it is already known that Trump’s name came up during the investigations and prosecution of Epstein. And CNN reported that in the bunch of papers made public recently is a letter signed by ‘J. Epstein’ addressed to another sex offender, which says, ‘Our President also shares our love of young, nubile girls.’ This was written in 2019 during Trump’s first term in office. The justice department has called the letter a ‘fake’.

Ashis Ray can be reached on X @ashiscray. More of his writing can be found here