"US Brand Is In The Toilet, China Is Looking More...": Ex-US NSA Jake Sullivan On Trump's India Tariffs

In response to US President Donald Trump's second tranche of tariffs on Indian goods, ex-White House official blamed Trump for what could drive New Delhi closer to Beijing, affecting US-India bilateral ties.

Jake Sullivan, who was the National Security Advisor to ex-US President Joe Biden, said Trump's tariff tactics has resulted in making China being branded a "more responsible player".

"China has moved ahead of the United States in popularity in a whole lot of countries, and that was not the case one year ago, where countries now are basically, you know, saying the US brand is in the toilet and China is looking like a more responsible player," Sullivan said during The Bulwark podcast.

Meanwhile, Trump's tariffs stance on India has caught in his own backyard as Democrats for the first time back the south Asian nation on being singaled out instead of China, the largest importer of Russian oil.

In a recent statement on X, Democrats on board United States House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “Instead of imposing sanctions on China or others purchasing larger amounts of Russian oil, Trump is singling out India with tariffs, hurting Americans and sabotaging the US-India relationship in the process.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan said "We were working to try to build a deeper, sustainable relationship with India, and the China challenge loomed large in that. President Trump executed a massive trade offensive against them, and the Indians are saying, I guess maybe we have to go show up in Beijing and sit with the Chinese because we've got a hedge against America," he said.

These comments come at a time PM Modi has arrived in China for the SCO Summit, marking his first visit in last seven years in the comany of world leaders like Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

The fallout of Trump's moves is that US allies now see Washington as a "big disruptor" that cannot be counted on, according to the  ex-government official.

Voicing his concerns, Sullivan mentioned how other nations are feelin the need to derisk from the US, visible in the highly-anticpated Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Narendra Modi meet.

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Sullivan is among dozens of high-level officials who have served the US government over the past few years and have been increasingly critical of Trump's tariffs in recent times.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has served under President Barack Obama's term, recently criticised Trump's policies, saying "Great nations don't necessarily exhibit greatness by giving people ultimatums all the time without sort of a genuine diplomatic effort."

Trump's ex-aide John Bolton had also slammed the President earlier this month for jeopardising decades of American efforts to bring India away from Russia and China.