‘World just changed’: TV host, economist see Trump’s India tariff backfiring on US

US President Donald Trump's doubling of tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50 per cent took effect as scheduled on Wednesday

Richard Wolff, an American economist, has slammed US President Donald Trump’s economic stance against India – saying the move risks backfiring and strengthening other economic blocs, such as BRICS.

“The United States talking to a small Middle Eastern country like Lebanon should be different than talking to a country like India. India is now, according to the United Nations, by population the largest country on earth, having outgrown China. If Trump continues with his tariff threats to India, who has a long historic relationship with Russia going back to the days of the Soviet Union and ever since, you are playing with a very different adversary,” Wolff said in conversation with Russian journalist Rick Sanchez.

He warned that should the US keep up its current tariff-driven approach, India would simply pivot away from American markets and strengthen trade ties with BRICS countries.

The economist noted that the tactics of Trump’s administration risk backfiring.

“If you shut off the United States to India by big tariffs, India will have to find other places to sell its exports. But like Russia found another place to sell its energy, India will sell its exports no longer to the United States, but to the rest of the BRICS,” he said.

He said the move will eventually develop BRICS into an ever larger, more integrated, and successful economic alternative to the West.

“We are watching a historic moment, but it will be, for those with some humor, it will be the spectacle of the United States acting like it's the world’s tough guy, as what it actually does is shoot itself in the foot,” Wolff stated.

Both Wolff and Sanchez pointed that Washington’s announcement of 50 per cent tariff on India marked a turning point, with Sanchez adding “the world just changed".

“Something happened there that historians will one day write about, because the world shifted," Sanchez told Wolff over the additional tariffs on India over the purchase of Russian oil.

Trump tried to bully India into ditching Russia -- India is not budging, and why should they? Why should the U.S. dictate who you can buy oil from?

Watch the legendary economist Richard Wolff eviscerate the U.S. economic policy. pic.twitter.com/e1FPoMc4g2

— Rick Sanchez (@RickSanchezTV) August 27, 2025

US President Donald Trump's doubling of tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50 per cent took effect as scheduled on Wednesday, delivering a serious blow to ties between two powerful democracies that had in recent decades become strategic partners.

A punitive 25 per cent tariff, imposed due to India's purchases of Russian oil, was added to Trump's prior 25 per cent tariff on many imports from the South Asian nation. It takes total duties as high as 50 per cent for goods as varied as garments, gems and jewellery, footwear, sporting goods, furniture and chemicals - among the highest imposed by the US and roughly on par with Brazil and China.