In a deeply damaging portrayal, President Donald Trump’s UN speech effectively painted India as a mercenary ally, a nation that prioritizes profit over principle by continuing to purchase Russian oil during the Ukraine conflict. The accusation that India is a “primary funder” of the war casts it as a cynical profiteer of bloodshed.
This narrative strips India’s policy of all legitimacy. It ignores the country’s pressing energy security needs and its responsibility to provide affordable power to hundreds of millions of people. Instead, it presents the decision to buy discounted Russian oil as a simple act of greed, a choice to make money at the expense of Ukrainian lives.
This portrayal is a powerful rhetorical weapon. It allows the Trump administration to take the moral high ground and to justify its own punitive actions. If India is acting as a war profiteer, then heavy-handed measures like 50% tariffs are not just a policy tool but a righteous punishment for immoral behavior.
This characterization is a gross oversimplification and a distortion of India’s motives, but its impact on the world stage can be significant. It forces India into a defensive crouch, needing to explain to the world that its actions are driven by necessity, not avarice.
The speech, which also included Trump’s self-serving claim about preventing an India-Pakistan war, was a comprehensive effort to rewrite narratives. By casting India as a mercenary actor in the present, he makes his own past actions seem all the more heroic and necessary by comparison.