Trump is known for playing the “madman" game, shocking his opponents with hyperboles and threats, and forcing them to fold. Except he’s been using this tactic not with adversaries but with friends and allies. This madness hopped from country to country, humiliating nations and putting them in a spot. But this time, he ran into a wall called India.

While most countries caved under pressure, India has stood firm, calm and composed. It all boils down to a simple principle really. India’s sovereignty is non-negotiable and no amount of pain inflicted by the US or anyone else can change that. And that message is resonating globally. The world now sees India as a country that doesn’t blink, even when Washington tries to strong-arm it. PM Modi captured the mood perfectly in Japan: “The world isn’t just watching India—it is counting on India."

And India is proving why. This fiscal’s first-quarter GDP growth came in at 7.8 per cent, higher than the expected 6.5 per cent, even amid global uncertainty and Trump’s tariff tantrums. That’s resilience on display.

Washington is buzzing with alarm and criticism about Trump’s India policy. Some even call it his biggest mistake yet, with geopolitical consequences beyond trade. A striking chorus pushed back on tariff maximalism: Jeffrey Sachs called the move “stupid" that “serves no purpose," while Nikki Haley warned of a “troubling inflection point" and urged treating India as a prized democratic partner central to balancing China. John Kerry criticised an “ultimatum" style—too much ordering and pressuring, not enough genuine diplomacy—arguing that great nations don’t lead by coercion alone. The Economist labeled the tariff push a “giant own-goal," noting the inconsistency of penalising India while sparing larger purchasers of Russian energy. The Wall Street Journal urged Trump to note the complexities of India’s political economy: no Indian leader will “commit political suicide" by crossing the farm red line. An Atlantic Council analysis warned that the tariff crusade risks unraveling decades of bipartisan work to build US–India strategic convergence.

Even pro-Trump voices like Saagar Enjeti called the tariffs pointless, criticising Trump for tariffing India to purportedly bring peace in Ukraine, a strategy that does not even work. Meanwhile, former US officials sounded alarms at various levels. These are just some examples, out of hundreds of global headlines.

If tariffs were bad, Trump’s advisers made things worse. Peter Navarro’s bizarre outburst about “Brahmins profiteering" wasn’t just factually wrong—it was racially charged, a political matchstick in India’s........

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