Trump Rejects Indian Peacekeepers and Negotiates New Trade Deal

Recent revelations from the book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" detail how Donald Trump rejected a proposal by Vice President JD Vance to deploy Indian or Saudi Arabian troops for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. During a January 30, 2025, Oval Office meeting, Vance argued that non-European forces were necessary to avoid provoking Russia. Trump dismissed the idea, claiming India would neither agree to the mission nor pay for it, while characterizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a bad negotiator.

Parallel to these diplomatic tensions, Trump clashed with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over Indian tariffs. Trump rejected official government data as bullshit, maintaining that India imposed duties as high as 175 percent on U.S. goods. This friction led to the Liberation Day measures, where the U.S. imposed a 25 percent tariff on Indian imports, which Trump increased to 50 percent in August 2025, accusing India of fueling Russia's war effort through oil purchases.

Relations began to stabilize in early 2026. On February 2, both nations announced a bilateral trade agreement framework. Under the pending deal, U.S. tariffs on Indian goods will drop to 18 percent, and India will lower duties on American agricultural and spirit products, provided India ceases purchasing Russian oil. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal are currently finalizing the terms.