India in the Age of Trump’s Unilateralism

AS US PRESIDENT Donald Trump re-enters the White House, global politics is bracing for a renewed wave of disruption. His recent dispatch of “tariff letters” to countries including long-standing allies like Japan and South Korea has already ignited apprehensions across Asia. India, meanwhile, appears to be in a temporary zone of favour, likely to announce an interim trade agreement with Washington. But even as New Delhi manages tactical gains, the deeper structural shifts in American policy under Trump’s second term demand a more profound reckoning — one that goes beyond deal-making and acknowledges the changing DNA of US global behaviour.

To understand Trump’s worldview and its implications for India and the broader global order, one must move past the perception of him as merely a transactional negotiator. Trump’s America represents more than just hard-nosed diplomacy; it signals the emergence of a radically altered superpower, one that no longer sees global leadership as an obligation or a virtue. Political scientist Michael Beckley, in two widely cited essays in Foreign Affairs, describes this phenomenon as the United States’ transformation into a “rogue superpower.” In Beckley’s thesis, Trump is not the originator of this shift but its most potent expression—a political force accelerating a broader American retreat from multilateralism, and a growing willingness to act unilaterally, backed by immense structural advantages.

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Trump’s second term is not a replay of his first. Unlike in 2017, when his actions were hemmed in by the inertia of the Washington establishment, this time he has near-total dominance over the Republican Party and increasingly the institutional architecture designed by America’s founding fathers to limit executive power.

Trump’s second coming is marked by a determination to radically reshape US policy across three core arenas: trade, security, and immigration — all without the encumbrances of international consensus or constitutional checks. This is the birth of a new era: the age of American unilateralism.

This unilateralism is not born of desperation but of perceived autonomy. The US remains structurally more resilient than its major rivals. Unlike Europe and Japan, it possesses a relatively young and growing population. It leads in technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, and advanced robotics, enabling the reshoring of industries that once fled to cheaper shores. It is also energy independent, a feat that offers it a freedom few others enjoy. And most crucially, while the US economy is less export-dependent, the rest of the world—particularly China, the EU, and many developing countries—relies heavily on access to American consumers. This asymmetry is the strategic core of Trump’s worldview: the belief that the US can coerce, punish, and extract concessions from others without significant cost to itself.

In Trump’s calculus, international cooperation is a burden, not a benefit. Alliances like NATO are seen as expensive obligations. Multilateral trade pacts are treated as constraints. And immigration, once viewed as a source of American dynamism, is now depicted as a national threat. The dramatic $37 billion allocation to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—larger than Italy’s entire defence budget—is a stark symbol of this inward turn. ICE’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented migrants reflects a domestic policy that mirrors Trump’s foreign policy: maximum pressure, minimum compromise.

This assertive new America has confounded allies and adversaries alike. In Asia, countries like Japan and South Korea are dismayed at being targets of punitive tariffs, despite their long-standing military and economic ties with Washington. Bangladesh finds itself slapped with a sweeping 35% tariff, while even Pakistan, historically volatile in its relationship with the US, is angling for a trade deal. India occupies a more ambiguous space. While it has escaped the harshest measures—at least for now—it cannot afford to ignore the deeper implications of Trump’s return.

New Delhi has responded with studied pragmatism. It has engaged with Washington more intensely than ever before, moving closer to finalising a bilateral trade agreement, and carefully navigating Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. Despite his erratic pronouncements—including unsolicited suggestions about Indo-Pak peace—India has maintained its diplomatic poise. Indian policymakers have astutely noted the gap between the rhetoric emanating from the White House and the more measured signals from the US Congress, State Department, and Pentagon. Sustained engagement with this broader American establishment has helped India weather previous storms, and will be crucial once again.

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However, pragmatism alone is not sufficient. India must confront a more unsettling question: Is America still a reliable anchor in the international system? Trump’s worldview suggests that US foreign policy is no longer guided by long-term alliances, shared values, or even stable strategic calculations. Instead, it is driven by domestic political compulsions, economic nationalism, and an increasingly authoritarian outlook. For India, this means navigating an international environment where predictability is scarce, and where Washington’s favour cannot be taken for granted, even when diplomatic channels are warm.

India’s growing outreach to other global players is thus a strategic necessity. The BRICS forum has gained renewed relevance as a space for collective articulation of developing world concerns. At its recent meeting in Brazil, BRICS issued a strong declaration on climate finance, calling for developed countries to fulfil their long-standing financial commitments under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement. This assertiveness reflects a broader recalibration—an understanding that multilateral platforms, while limited, remain important leverage points in a world of rising unilateralism.

That said, India’s engagement with BRICS is more nuanced than nostalgic. While the forum may echo the rhetoric of the Non-Aligned Movement, Delhi’s diplomacy is far from idealistic. It is guided by hard-nosed realism—a belief that bilateral deals with Washington still matter more than multilateral posturing.

Delhi is unlikely to embark on any ideological confrontation with the US, even as it deepens ties with Moscow and seeks strategic autonomy in defence and technology. In this sense, India is not abandoning the global liberal order; it is hedging its bets.

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Yet, one critical shortcoming in India’s approach remains under-examined: the limited understanding of the forces reshaping American politics. Indian foreign policy often interprets US actions through the lens of continuity—assuming that institutions will eventually rein in Trumpism, or that another election cycle will restore normalcy. This underestimates the profound ideological and demographic changes transforming the US political landscape.

The MAGA coalition—Make America Great Again—is not just a Trumpian slogan. It is a mass movement, deeply sceptical of globalization, hostile to immigration, and indifferent to global leadership. It sees alliances as costly entanglements and international law as a nuisance. As long as this coalition remains ascendant, the US will continue to drift toward rogue-state behaviour, with or without Trump at the helm.

India must invest in understanding this transformation at a much deeper level. This means going beyond its traditional interlocutors in Washington—the think tanks and analysts who lament India’s “illiberalism” but fail to explain the illiberal surge in their own country.

Delhi needs new partners in the US—scholars, policymakers, and political strategists who can illuminate why Trump is harsher on America’s allies than on adversaries like Russia; why trade, once a tool of diplomacy, has become a weapon; and why immigration policy now rivals defence spending in Washington’s budget priorities.

At home, India must also foster a more sophisticated community of American watchers—a cohort that understands not just US foreign policy but its domestic drivers, electoral geography, cultural shifts, and the ideological battles shaping its global role. Universities, think tanks, and diplomatic institutions must expand their focus on American studies, creating expertise that can anticipate rather than merely react to Washington’s shifts.

As the world moves deeper into a post-liberal international order, Delhi’s challenge is to craft a foreign policy that balances engagement with resilience. Trump’s return may have accelerated the collapse of old certainties, but it has also created space for new alignments, deeper autonomy, and more agile diplomacy. In the emerging world of fragmented powers and transactional politics, India must remain anchored — not to a fading liberal order, but to a clear-eyed understanding of its interests and the shifting tides of global power.

The age of American unilateralism is not a storm to be weathered, but a climate to be understood. And as Trump steers the world’s preeminent power down a path of confrontation and coercion, Delhi must navigate with foresight, flexibility, and an unflinching grasp of the new world disorder.

(The writer can be reached at dipakkurmiglpltd@gmail.com)

(The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ukhrul Times. Ukhrul Times values and encourages diverse perspectives.)