Former U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has sparked controversy with his claim that President Donald Trump has “thrown away” America’s relationship with India in order to advance his family’s business interests in Pakistan.
Speaking to the MeidasTouch Network on its YouTube channel, Sullivan emphasized that the United States ought to strengthen its alignment with India. “U.S. has worked to build a relationship with India, a country that we should be aligned with on technology, talent, economics, and so many issues. And align with dealing with strategic threats from China,” Sullivan said.
“Now, in no small part, I think because of Pakistan’s willingness to do business deals with the Trump family, he has thrown the India relationship over the side. That is a huge strategic harm in its own right because a strong U.S.-India relationship serves our interests,” he further claimed.
“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 U.S. brand is in the toilet and China is looking like a more responsible player,” Sullivan further added on the podcast.
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Sullivan’s comments come at a time when U.S.–India relations are strained, following Washington’s decision to slap 50 percent tariffs on Indian exports, including an extra 25 percent duty tied to New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.
Trump has always leaned on his image as a businessman, and his second term in the White House is making that even clearer. Driven by this deal-making mindset, he has started cozying up to Pakistan, a country that, until recently, saw little movement in its ties with Washington.
Since Trump returned to office earlier this year, Washington’s relations with Islamabad have shown marked improvement. In April, shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack, the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC) and World Liberty Financial (WLF) entered into a series of agreements aimed at boosting investment and advancing innovation in the crypto sector.
World Liberty Financial (WLF) debuted in 2024 as a decentralized finance platform with backing from Trump as part of his push to promote cryptocurrency adoption and widen blockchain use across the United States. Notably, Trump, along with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, collectively control a 60 percent stake in the venture.
The New York Times previously revealed that World Liberty Financial highlights the growing overlap between Trump’s political ambitions and his business ventures. While American entrepreneur Gentry Thomas Beach, a longtime associate of the Trump family, has been actively advocating business ventures in Pakistan.
As quoted by the Mint, “President Trump expressed keen interest in forging a mutually beneficial trade partnership with Pakistan based on long-term strategic convergence and shared interests,” the Pakistan military stated.
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On Monday, Trump escalated criticism of U.S.–India trade relations, labeling them “totally one-sided” and a “disaster,” while alleging that India has historically benefited at the expense of American exporters by imposing excessively high tariffs. He highlighted the persistent trade gap, noting that India exports large quantities of goods to the United States, while U.S. companies face significant hurdles entering the Indian market because of what he described as some of the strictest tariffs in the world.
Secretary Scott Bessent expressed optimism about ending the tariff dispute on Tuesday, stating, “two great countries will get this solved.” Yet, echoing Trump’s concerns, he also condemned New Delhi’s ongoing purchase of Russian oil despite U.S. tariffs, cautioning that such imports were helping fund Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine.
In an interview with Fox Business, he minimized the importance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China, describing the event as “largely performative.””
“This is a longstanding meeting, it’s called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and I think it’s largely performative,” Bessent said. “I think at the end of the day, India is the most populous democracy in the world. Their values are much closer to ours and to China’s than to Russia’s.”