US President Donald Trump’s presidency marked a significant strain on the defining strategic partnership between India and the United States due to his transactional approach, erratic behaviour, and overt support for Pakistan, India’s long-standing adversary, reported Imran Khurshid of FirstPost.

On July 30, 2025, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods effective August 1, 2025, while simultaneously announcing a trade and energy deal with Pakistan, a move that not only contradicted US-India relations but also provoked India strategically.

Trump went further by speculating that Pakistan might someday sell oil to India, a suggestion deemed unrealistic and deeply provocative given the hostile India-Pakistan relationship and India’s national security sensitivities.

Trump’s repeated portrayal of India and Pakistan as equals in bilateral matters, including his exaggerated and false claims of having brokered a ceasefire between the two countries—claims denied by top Indian officials including Prime Minister Narendra Modi—have seriously undermined the trust built over decades between India and the US.

This behaviour shows Trump’s impulsive and reactive style of engagement, often bypassing diplomatic channels and relying on social media outbursts, leading to unpredictable and destabilising diplomatic interactions.

Even after Indian leaders publicly or privately refuted Trump’s claims, he continued repeating them, demonstrating a disregard for established diplomatic norms and India’s core strategic concerns.

In addition to the tariff imposition on India, the US-Pakistan deal reportedly includes collaboration on developing what Trump called Pakistan's “massive” oil reserves, despite Pakistan’s relatively modest proven oil reserves and heavy dependence on oil imports from the Middle East.

Pakistan agreed to import US crude oil, signalling a shift in its energy sources. This energy partnership and the tariff concessions to Pakistan (reducing tariffs from 29% to 19%) came in sharp contrast to the punitive tariffs imposed on India, highlighting a clear tilt towards Islamabad.

Trump’s hosting and public praise of Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, and the positive statements of US military officials about Pakistan’s counter-terrorism role further exacerbated India’s sense of strategic marginalisation and diplomatic offence.

These gestures provided moral and strategic encouragement to Pakistan’s military elite despite its documented record of sponsoring terrorism against India.

The cumulative effect of Trump’s actions has led to a deepening mistrust in Indian strategic circles about the reliability of the US as a partner.

Unlike his predecessors who maintained a stable bilateral relationship with India out of mutual respect and strategic foresight, Trump’s chaotic, transactional behaviour, and disregard for India's important moderating role in global coalitions like BRICS, disrupted the strategic balance.

His blunt statements trivialising India’s economic choices and cavalier attitude towards a key Indo-Pacific partner treated the US-India partnership as expendable and negotiable on whims, causing a Cold War–style freeze in trust and mutual respect.

India’s Parliament witnessed urgent calls for Prime Minister Modi to publicly rebuff Trump’s false claims, but such efforts are of limited value given Trump’s personality and style of governance.

This situation signals a probable long-term erosion of bilateral trust that could take years or decades to repair.

India, with a history of navigating cold phases in its relations with the US—such as the sanctions post-1998 nuclear tests and the hostility during the 1971 war—will adapt its foreign policy to safeguard national interests, possibly recalibrating away from close US alignment and exhibiting increasing scepticism regarding American reliability.

Trump’s presidency sowed seeds of growing anti-American sentiment within Indian strategic thought, hampered the progress of what was regarded as the defining partnership of the 21st century, and challenged the foundations of trust in global diplomacy by endorsing Pakistan strategically and ignoring India’s national security concerns.

The US-Pakistan oil and trade deals, punitive tariffs on India, and public endorsements of Pakistan by Trump have compounded these tensions and delivered a serious blow to the US-India relationship.

This analysis synthesises detailed reporting and commentary primarily from Firstpost by Imran Khurshid and corroborating news coverage from DW, Hindustan Times, Reuters, South China Morning Post, and Economic Times dated July-August 2025