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Indian-Americans felt Trump was going to be pro-India, hasn’t happened: Thanedar
Thanedar said there was maybe, a 50-55% chance, that the Russia sanctions bill could pass because Trump controls both chambers
WASHINGTON DC: Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar criticised US President Donald Trump for his track record on India and stressed that Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement were not pro-India. In an exclusive interview, Thanedar, a member of the Democratic Party, also opposed Trump’s indiscriminate use of tariffs against global trading partners and accused the President of driving up inflation. The Michigan Congressman said the new Russia sanctions bill, which threatens steep tariffs against countries such as India that buy Russian energy, needs to be better thought through, although the bill could pass given the Republican Party’s numbers.
There seems to be some volatility in the India-US relationship at this time. Your views on that?
There is definitely some volatility. Many people in the Indian-American diaspora here in the United States felt that Mr Trump was going to be pro-India US president and they were excited about the relationship President Trump had with Prime Minister Modi. For example, events like the Howdy Modi event in Houston back in 2019 created a sense that this administration is going to be very friendly to Mr Modi and India. I do not see that happening. In fact, Mr. Trump is more focused on his own America First agenda, and he’s basically doing what he believes is right for America and what he believes is right for his supporters. His supporters are not very pro-India and pro-immigrants. And Mr Trump is really trying to please them, and he represents them. So therefore, this whole myth about Mr Trump being such a good thing for India, has not materialised. And that is what I was warning my Indian American friends in the United States about. Just because he chose a couple of people of Indian origin like (FBI Director) Kash Patel, these are people who - even though they are of Indian descent - are people that really are into the “Make America Great Again” movement. Just because they are Indian Americans doesn’t mean that they are necessarily pro-India or pro-Modi. So all of these myths have been now debunked or whatever. But the key point remains that India is an economic power as the fifth-largest economy in the world. Perhaps very soon, it will be the third-largest economy, and Mr Modi has led India well in the last decade or so. There is certainly no doubt that his policies have been helpful. The United States respects economic power. So, from that angle, there is a lot more respect by the United States for India.
A new Russia sanctions bill in the Senate, which uses tariffs to target countries like India which buy Russian energy, is making waves. What is your view of the bill? Will it pass?
These tariffs are a tool. They are a tool that needs to be used very carefully. Now this president has taken over the use of tariffs under a false pretence of having some kind of an emergency. He really should not be taking over that power. Secondly, he’s using tariffs in a vindictive way. You can’t just wake up in the morning and say, today, I’m going to punish this country, and tomorrow I’m going to punish that. That is not a very responsible or sensible way of using such a powerful tool that needs to be used judiciously. This is not something that you write on Truth Social. This is about the trade teams of both countries needing to sit together and sort this out.
Trump, in a very populistic way, feels that these countries have been unfair to the United States, so I’m going to punish them. And in the end, he ends up punishing his own people, but he makes it appear like the foreign countries are paying for that tariff. Actually, American people are paying for the tariffs because the distributors, the middleman, the Amazons or Walmarts, whoever is buying these goods from foreign countries, have to then pay the tariff. Now they aren’t just going to pay for this tariff from their profits. They are going to pass that on to American consumers. And therefore the president, who came to power saying he’s going to lower the cost of living, not only has not done anything to lower the price of everyday living, but he has actually increased those prices. So he’s actually gone back on his word, and he has made the lives of ordinary Americans much harder. So these tariffs are not the right thing.
And the Russia bill in particular? Do you think it is likely to get through the House and the Senate? It’s a point of concern for India at this time
I don’t think there is a good bipartisan support for this. However, Trump’s party has a majority in the Senate and a majority in the Congress, and he’s been very intimidating to his members of Congress. So it is possible that, right now, I would say maybe a 50-55% chance, that it could pass, because Trump controls both chambers. So it is likely, but it’s not a good economic move, and these things need to be much better thought through than what they’re doing.
You sit on the Homeland Security Committee. Illegal immigration has been at the top of the agenda for India and America. I was wondering if you’d give us a sense of how that conversation has evolved on illegal immigration and whether Trump’s policy has worked?
When Mr Trump came in, he campaigned on a promise to control America’s borders, keep illegal migrants from coming into the United States and deport gang members and criminals. I support a strong US border. We need to protect our borders. Migrants must follow US laws. We need to have an orderly process.
But look, I’m an immigrant myself. I lived in India for the first 24 years of my life living in poverty. I got admission into a PhD program when I was 24 years old, and I got a student visa. I went for a student visa at the American Embassy in Mumbai, and the embassy denied my visa the first time I applied. Then I gave more documents. They denied my visa again. The third time, I gave even more evidence. They denied my visa for a third time. Then they denied my visa the fourth time. The fifth time, I had nothing new to give, so I resubmitted the same documents I had submitted the fourth time, and it got approved. And I asked them why they approved the application that time. They told me that the counsellor handling my case had gone to America for vacation, and somebody else looked at my application and approved it.
So the whole American immigration system is very antiquated and has not been reformed for decades. Trump likes to do these things without much thought and he’s trying to please his MAGA base, which is very hateful towards immigrants. He’s very hateful towards anybody that looks different from them, and he’s trying to please them with these policies. Now they have set a goal of several thousand deportations a day. These targets put a lot of pressure on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). So now these ICE agents, who are all wearing masks and who don’t identify themselves, are going to places like Home Depot, and they’re going to places like construction sites and restaurants and indiscriminately, rounding people up on racial profiling. You know, anybody that looks different from white.
Basically, they are rounding up these people. Sometimes they are rounding up American citizens. Sometimes they are taking migrants and their American-born children. And they are, you know, picking up children who have cancer. So in the homeland security committee, we’re talking about this because just to make this target number that Trump has set, they are indiscriminately picking people that aren’t white Americans and anybody that looks different. So it’s almost a war against brown people, basically,
The 2026 midterm elections offer the Democrats a chance to claim back control of the House of Representatives and check some of Trump’s power. You represent a district in a key swing state. Are you confident the Democrats will win in 2026?
The Democrats need to win in November 2026 because right now the Republicans have uncontrolled, unlimited power. Trump has unlimited power, and the best way for us to stop his march towards tyranny and authoritarianism is for Democrats to flip the House. Now, some Democrats feel very confident that that’s a given. It’s a midterm and the conventional wisdom is that the President’s party always does poorly in midterms. That’s conventional wisdom. I’m not so sure conventional wisdom applies to Mr. Trump. Trump has his own ways. He has his own popularity. So I think it would be wrong on the part of Democrats to take this for granted. I think we need to really work hard on this, and I have yet to see an effective strategy to combat Trump. Are we just telling people how bad Trump is? Is that going to be a winning formula? What are our policies? What are two or three things Democrats are going to do? And we need to really communicate that well, we need to focus on that right now. We are currently all things to all people, so our messaging isn’t as sharp. Even though Republicans have the wrong priorities, they have sharper messaging. You know, they focus on two or three things, and they talk about that. Democrats talk about so many different things. So the party needs to think through its strategy.
