Top Democrat Rahm Emanuel has lashed out at Donald Trump, accusing the US President of sacrificing decades of strategic effort with India merely to satisfy his personal ambition.
Emanuel, once Barack Obama’s chief of staff and until recently the US ambassador to Japan, claimed in an interview that Trump destroyed years of progress in the India-US relationship simply because Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not endorse his pursuit of a Nobel Peace Prize.
“He threw it all away because Modi would not say that the President deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for the ceasefire (with Pakistan),” Emanuel remarked, referring to the temporary halt of Operation Sindoor against terror bases after a request from the Pakistani army.
While India has maintained that the decision to pause was entirely its own, Trump has repeatedly -- at least 50 times, presented it as his personal diplomatic victory secured by threatening New Delhi with 200% tariffs.
Most recently, Trump mentioned India and Pakistan conflict for the nth time commenting on Russia-Ukraine war saying he does not know why Russian president Vladimir Putin is continuing with the war.
Emanuel argued that India had long been considered essential to US strategic plans. Describing New Delhi as “a major counterweight against China both on the manufacturing and technology side, but also on the military side”, he asserted that Trump had damaged bipartisan groundwork laid over “40 years of meticulous strategic planning and preparation and enhancing and warming the relationship through Democratic and Republican administrations, even his first administration.”
The former congressman also levelled allegations of questionable financial links between Trump associates and Pakistan. He claimed the president acted “out of ego and out of money from Pakistan, that was paying both his son and (Trump aide Steve) Witkoff's son.”
This appeared to allude to a business deal signed in April 2025 between the Pakistan Crypto Council and a firm co-founded by Zach Witkoff. Reports say Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner hold stakes in that firm.
Meanwhile, the ongoing tariff conflict has stirred concerns in both Washington and New Delhi. India has been hit by duties up to 50 percent, straining supply chains and testing a relationship considered critical in balancing China’s rise.
Earlier this month, 19 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Trump urging him to “reset and repair” ties with India. The letter, signed by Deborah Ross, Ro Khanna, Brad Sherman, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal and others, warned that “confrontational measures could push India closer to Russia and China” and undermine joint goals in the Indo-Pacific.
Reacting to this congressional initiative, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor welcomed their letter. He said he was “delighted to see this initiative by ten members of the US Congress,” noting that several of those lawmakers had met his delegation in Washington recently.
Tharoor has previously criticised what he called the silence of the Indian-American community in the United States. “When I questioned the silence of the diaspora, it was to express concern that they were not pressing their political representatives to take a stand like this,” he wrote, adding that advocacy from the diaspora “will surely have some influence on US policy.”
Tharoor has long highlighted that increased engagement by Indian-origin voters in the US could strengthen cooperation in areas like defense, trade policy and strategic alignment.
“If you care about your relationship with the motherland, you also have to fight for it, speak for it, and press your political representatives to stand up for India,” he earlier said. “Engagement matters; it is not enough to feel for India; action and advocacy are essential.”
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