Bolton Hits Out Again: Trump ‘Set US-India Ties Back Decades’

5 September-Kolkata, India: John Bolton, the former US National Security Adviser, has criticised his former employer and the US President Donald Trump and his administration by stating, “set US-India relations back decades, pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi closer to Russia and China”.

John Bolton further added that China was waiting for this moment to replace and take out Donald Trump and the US out of the picture.

John Bolton on India-US Relations

Due to increased economic tensions brought on by the US imposing a 50% tariff on Indian imports, including an additional 25% due to the country’s purchase of Russian crude oil, which Washington claims supports Moscow’s war against Ukraine, New Delhi is facing uncertainty on a global scale.

The former National Security Adviser posted a post on his official X account after his interview with LBC which stated that “The White House has set U.S.-India relations back decades, pushing Modi closer to Russia and China. Beijing has cast itself as an alternative to the U.S. and Donald Trump.”

At a time when Washington-New Delhi relations are at their lowest point in more than 20 years, someone makes the comments.

Bolton’s comments came after the Chinese President Xi Jinping received a warm welcome from more than 20 international leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the SCO 2025 summit in China.

The summit has heightened fears of a new anti-US axis fueled by Trump’s broad tariffs on numerous nations.

Bolton on Donald Trump

Bolton, who served as NSA during Trump’s first term, warned that the American leader’s intimate relationships with world leaders “won’t protect” them from the “worst.” He claimed that the president had a very excellent personal relationship with Modi, but “that’s gone now.”

According to an interview, John Bolton said that “I think Trump sees international relations through the prism of his personal relations with leaders. So if he has a good relationship with Vladimir Putin, the US has a good relationship with Russia. That’s obviously not the case.”

He further added “Trump had a very good relationship personally with Modi. I think that people have learned now, and it serves as a lesson to everybody, for example, (UK Prime Minister) Keir Starmer, that a good personal relationship may help at times, but it won’t protect you from the worst.“

The former NSA stated that Trump’s treatment of New Delhi over the past several months has undermined years of bipartisan US efforts to wean India away from its Cold War alignment with Russia and to ensure that Indian policymakers across the spectrum recognize China as their principal security challenge.

He concluded his interview by saying, “That has been reversed. I think we can reverse it again, but it’s a very bad moment.”

Bolton’s criticism of Trump

Luke Bolton has been an avid criticizer of Donald Trump and his office administration for ruining the relations with India by imposing India’s imports are subject to a 25% levy since it buys Russian oil. It later went to 50%.

Bolton called the action a “unforced error” and suggested that it might have brought New Delhi closer to the Beijing-Moscow axis.

Bolton’s criticism coincides with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recent searches of his Washington office and Maryland home as part of a criminal investigation into alleged mishandling of classified material.