Trump’s tariffs on India could damage trade, political support: Suhas Subramanyam

Indian-American Congressman Suhas Subramanyam criticised Trump’s tariffs on India, saying they’ll alienate partners like New Delhi and raise prices for Americans

Indian-American Congressman Suhas Subramanyam criticised Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on India, stating that the new levies will alienate partners like New Delhi while also raising prices of everyday goods for American consumers. Subramanyam, a democrat elected to the House of Representatives in 2024, charged the Trump administration with handling the relationship with India poorly. He also said that he expects the tariffs to hurt Trump’s prospects with Indian-Americans.

Suhas Subramanyam, a democrat elected to the House of Representatives in 2024, charged the Trump administration with handling the relationship with India poorly.

You’re in your first term in Congress as a democrat. How are you seeing the Trump administration and the recent announcement of a 25% tariff on India?

I came into this not expecting this much of an attack by this administration on both the federal civil service—I represent many of those federal civil servants—as well as the increasing costs on Americans. Tariffs are a tax on the American people. And so, when you put a tariff on goods from a country, it’s not necessarily that country that’s going to suffer or the businesses. What they’re going to try to do instead is they’re going to pass those costs along to the American customers and the American people. So yes, that will hurt trade relationships with countries like India. In this case, a 25% tariff means a 25% increase on so many essential goods that we buy from India. And that’s going to be bad for everyone, but especially the American people. And all of this seems to be happening because the president is trying to strong-arm India in different foreign policy ways. But to me, foreign policy should be separated from essentially taxing the American people.

There is a lot of concern in India right now about Trump’s handling of the India-US relationship. Your view?

I think Trump has handled the relationship with India poorly. And he’s handled most of our relationships with allies very poorly. I think Trump has been the most forgiving of Vladimir Putin, and has tried to improve that relationship. But other than that relationship, he’s harder relationships with pretty much every other country besides Russia, which is a little bit backwards from what I would hope for from a President at this time. My family is from India.

My mom’s from Bangalore. My dad’s from Chennai and Secunderabad, and we have ties in India. I still have family in India. But India is a strategic partner in so many ways with the United States. Military cooperation should continue and economic cooperation should increase. We’re natural allies in many other ways as big democracies. And then, there’s concerns in our country about China trying to expand its influence and reach in Asia. And so India is a natural ally. And so, to undermine and attack India, and to undermine our relationships with allies like India, I think it’s really bad for our country and for the American people.

During the 2024 Presidential election, we saw some support in the Indian American community transfer from the Democrats to Donald Trump. Is that wearing off given what’s happened over the last few years?

Overall, yes, there’s been a shift towards Trump in the past couple of years. But I think the majority of Indian Americans still are Democrats and support Democrats. I think many of them consider themselves independent, but then align with Democrats because they believe in a lot of the Democratic party’s values of making sure we have a strong economy that works for everyone, making sure everyone has health care and making sure we have a sensible foreign policy. And so, a lot of the values of the Democratic Party align with Indian Americans. But I have seen a shift. You saw a shift from a lot of different ethnic groups towards Trump. In fact, I think the only group that shifted away from Trump was probably college educated voters generally. But, with that said, I think putting tariffs on India will not help his standing with Indian Americans. I think putting our democracy at risk at times will not help him. Meeting with the military leader of Pakistan will probably not help him with Indian or Pakistani American voters here. I think there’s a lot of things President Trump is doing without realising such that he’s undermining the very people that move towards him.

What would you say to people around the world who are dismayed by the kind of dysfunction we’re seeing coming out of Washington DC?

I’m biased, but I think America is still the greatest country in the world. We still have a very strong economy. It’s being undermined by this administration, but we still have one and will still continue to be a reliable partner. It’s just that this administration has undermined a lot of those things, but we still have strong voices in our country that will continue to push back when this administration does things to undermine our democracy or undermine our relationships around the world. Long term, I want to see all of these tariffs lowered or eliminated. I think that’s what’s best for the American people. I want to see us actually encourage and increase our economic gains, and that involves actually striking new trade deals that will allow for more economic cooperation long term. And I think we’re going in the opposite direction of what I’d like to see. We have domestic issues like the cutting of Medicaid and other health care issues that I think, again, are going in the opposite direction. We need to cover more people. There’s a lot that we’re concerned about, but I’m still optimistic about our country long term.