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In a quizzical move, Trump signed off his tariff announcement to India by writing 'MAGA!' at the end. Is it because Trump is finally playing to the gallery—appearing to please his MAGA base, which was unhappy over his softer stance on immigration and H-1B policies that benefit India—just days before stepping into the Oval Office? Find out
New Delhi,UPDATED: Jul 30, 2025 20:03 IST
It wasn’t as if no one saw this coming. The signs were clear. The warnings, not-so-subtle. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump once again threatened to slap 25 per cent tariffs on Indian goods. And then, the inevitable happened.
Trump finally dropped the bomb on Wednesday, imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports to the US—plus a penalty for buying military equipment and energy from Russia.
Even though Trump began by calling India "our friend" in his Truth Social post, his close aide Lindsey Graham's warning to BRICS countries a week ago—that the US President intends to crush their economies, including India’s—suggests otherwise.
However, in a quizzical move, Trump signed off his tariff announcement to India by writing 'MAGA!' at the end.
Not what India would have imagined five months ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the US envisioning a MEGA partnership, while referencing Trump’s MAGA.
“In India, we are working towards a Viksit Bharat, which in the American context translates into Make India Great Again (MIGA),” PM Modi had tweeted in February, posing next to Trump.
However, PM Modi’s vision of a ‘Viksit Bharat’, hungry for cheap Russian energy to fuel its needs, did not align with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” mantra, who is ready to go to any length to save an extra dime for his economy.
Months later, the idea of MIGA lay in tatters as Trump announced heavy tariffs on India. What piqued interest, however, was his signing off with MAGA—an appeal to his voter base—something he hadn’t done while announcing similar tariffs on countries like South Korea, the Philippines, or Libya.
Which begs an important question: why sign off with MAGA only for India, but not for others?
Is it because Trump is finally playing to the gallery—appearing to please his MAGA base, which was unhappy over his softer stance on immigration and H-1B policies that benefit India—just days before stepping into the Oval Office?
It was evident when Trump's decision to nominate Chennai-born techie Sriram Krishnan to lead AI policy in his administration set the cat among the pigeons, with MAGA supporters decrying his perceived 'India First' agenda, as his social media reflected support for easing green card restrictions for skilled workers.
Trump has carefully course-corrected ever since. Moving further away from PM Modi's equation of MAGA + MIGA = MEGA.
From his administration's swift cancellation of the legal status of university students in the US to his 'Big, Beautiful Bill' making money remittances from Indians in the US to India more expensive, Indians are slowly but steadily coming to realise that the American Dream may be over.
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Published By:
Sayan Ganguly
Published On:
Jul 30, 2025
