In a sharp critique of U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump, CNN host and foreign affairs analyst Fareed Zakaria warned that Washington’s abrupt shift in its approach to India risks unraveling decades of bipartisan diplomatic progress.
“America is often criticized for being short-term in its orientation and quick to change course,” Zakaria said on his show Fareed Zakaria GPS. “In fact, Washington often shows a steely consistency in its foreign policy. Consider the strategic outreach to India that began during the Clinton administration and was expanded on in a bipartisan manner over 25 years. Until now.”
According to Zakaria, Trump’s “sudden, inexplicable hostility toward India” represents a break with a carefully cultivated relationship pursued by five U.S. administrations, including his own first term. “If it holds, this reversal may be the biggest strategic mistake of the Trump presidency so far,” he cautioned.
READ: ‘Golden Age of Crypto’: Trump appoints new group to promote digital finance (July 31, 2025)
Zakaria, who was born in India, is an influential voice in foreign policy debates. In addition to hosting GPS, he writes a regular column for The Washington Post and has authored several books on international relations and American strategy.
The journalist and political commentator traced the origins of the modern U.S.-India partnership back to President Bill Clinton’s 2000 visit to New Delhi, which “opened up the possibility of a new, warm relationship between the two countries.” The real breakthrough, he noted, came under George W. Bush, whose administration recognized India as a vital counterweight to a rising China.
“The single most important counterweight to China could be India — then the world’s second most populous country, which was also beginning to reform economically and integrate with the world,” Zakaria explained.
The Bush administration took the historic step of negotiating a civil nuclear agreement with India, despite its nuclear weapons program, which had long been a sticking point in bilateral relations. “The Bush administration decided that India should be treated like a great power, like France or Britain or China,” Zakaria said. That deal, he noted, “marked a watershed in the relations between the two countries.”
The Obama administration built on this foundation, backing India’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and deepening trade ties. Trump’s first term, Zakaria added, “took an important leap forward politically” by elevating the Quad — a security grouping of the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia — and by embracing a personal relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. President Biden, in turn, expanded defense and economic cooperation, with India exporting more smartphones to the U.S. than China in the second quarter of 2025.
Against this backdrop, Zakaria described Trump’s new stance as jarring and counterproductive. “With little warning, Donald Trump has undone decades of painstaking effort by American diplomats,” he said.
According to Zakaria, Trump has placed India in the “highest category” of countries for U.S. restrictions, alongside Syria and Myanmar, while extending more favorable treatment to Pakistan, including joint oil exploration talks. He added that Trump has “suddenly turned on India, insulting its economy, calling it dead.”
Zakaria pointed out that the criticism is out of step with reality. “In fact, India has had the fastest-growing large economy in the world for several years now and is the world’s fourth-largest economy. It will likely overtake Germany by 2028 to become number three after the U.S. and China,” he said.
India, Zakaria noted, has long pursued a policy of nonalignment, later reframed under Modi as “multi-alignment” to balance relations with multiple global powers. Persistent U.S. diplomacy, along with China’s rise, had gradually nudged New Delhi toward closer ties with Washington.
But Zakaria warned that Trump’s reversal could undo this progress. “Even if Trump reverses course once again, the damage is done,” he said. “Indians believe that America has shown its true colors: it’s unreliable, it’s willing to be brutal to those it calls its friends.”
As a result, he argued, India may feel compelled to hedge its bets by strengthening ties with Russia and even seeking rapprochement with China. “The country is united in its shock and anger at Trump’s insulting behavior,” Zakaria said.
Reflecting on his own longstanding advocacy for closer U.S.-India ties, Zakaria concluded with a sobering admission: “When I’m in India, I often urge the country to forge closer ties with America, telling Indians that they should shed their ambivalence, that their destiny lies in a great partnership between the world’s oldest and its largest democracy. Today, I would be hard-pressed to urge Indians to follow that advice.”