Trump's decisions based on vendettas, grudges? What US political commentator said

American journalist and political commentator Rick Sanchez has said that United States President Donald Trump is capable of making decisions based on "vendettas, grudges, and non-scientific thinking", citing the recent imposition of 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports as a case in point.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Sanchez was asked about Trump's decision to penalise India for continuing to buy discounted Russian oil.

"Is Trump the kind of person who sometimes makes decisions based on vendettas, grudges, and non-scientific thinking? Yes, of course he is," he said, linking the extraordinary tariffs to Trump's tendency to allow personal factors to influence policy.

In July, Trump first imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, later adding another 25 per cent duty specifically on imports of Russian oil, taking the total to 50 per cent.

The unprecedented level of tariffs, according to American multinational investment bank Jefferies, was largely the consequence of Trump's "personal pique" after New Delhi refused to allow him to mediate during hostilities with Pakistan, thereby depriving him of the chance to showcase himself as a peace broker and strengthen his claim to a Nobel Peace Prize.

"Tariffs are primarily the consequence of the American president's personal pique that he was not allowed to play a role in seeking to end the long-running acrimony between India and Pakistan," the report said.

Sanchez, meanwhile, criticised the broader approach of the Trump administration towards India. He called the secondary tariffs "extremely preposterous in the eyes of most people" and described them as "a disrespectful and ignorant policy".

He argued that Washington had failed to grasp the underlying causes of the Ukraine conflict from Russia's perspective, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, to some regard, taken those into account.

"The disrespectful part comes when you start treating a country like India with its history, resources and capabilities like a schoolchild India's the big boy, not a schoolchild," he said.

The journalist praised New Delhi's refusal to yield under pressure, calling it a defining moment in the shifting balance of global power. "When India looked back at the US and said, 'You will not tell us who we can or cannot buy oil from,' it was such a cataclysmic, transformational moment. Historians will one day look back and say, that's when power started to truly decline from the old European US that was running the world since World War II," Sanchez said.

He emphasised that this did not mean American power was collapsing, but rather that it was shifting towards the Global South, where "the premier countries are going to be India and China, along with Russia, South Africa and Brazil."

'MY COUNTRY IS JUST SO DUMB'

Sanchez also reacted strongly to remarks made by Trump's aide Peter Navarro, who had controversially described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as "Modi's war" while commenting on India's continued purchase of discounted Russian oil.

Calling Navarro's comments "absolutely laughable", Sanchez said, "He's not a very smart man. He's never been regarded as a big thinker."

He added: "When it comes to understanding geopolitics, especially from a Global-South community, my country is just so dumb They know absolutely nothing about India's history, or the relationship between India and China and vis-a-vis Russia and Ukraine. As a result, they make foolish statements like this."

He further suggested that while Trump was surrounded by "neocons, war machines, and people who make money selling weapons" who tried to push him into confrontation with India, Russia or China, the president instinctively knew that "if he does that, he's picking the wrong horse in the race".

Sanchez also pointed to the ongoing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin, attended by Prime Minister Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. He called their trilateral meeting "transformational", adding that Trump appeared to be discovering some equilibrium in his dealings with countries of the Global South.

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