August 29, 2025

Hold tight, folks! The US-India trade war just got spicier. Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s sharp-tongued trade advisor, fired a fresh salvo at India this Friday. Why? He claims India is using American trade dollars to bankroll Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine! Yes, you read that right. Navarro says Indian oil refiners are teaming up with “silent Russian partners” to make huge profits by refining cheap Russian oil and selling it worldwide. Meanwhile, Russia is pocketing hard cash to fuel its dreaded war machine. Navarro blasted India on X (formerly Twitter) with fiery words: “India uses our dollars to buy discounted Russian crude. This isn’t just about India’s unfair trade—it’s about cutting off the financial lifeline India has extended to Putin’s war machine.” He dropped some eye-popping numbers too—before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian oil was less than 1% of India’s imports. Now it’s over 30%, that’s more than 1.5 million barrels daily! And it’s not India’s thirst that’s driving this; it’s eager Indian businessmen looking for big profits while Ukraine pays the price in blood and tears. The trade advisor didn’t hold back either. “India’s Big Oil lobby has turned the largest democracy in the world into a massive refining hub and oil money laundromat for the Kremlin,” he thundered. Out of all that Russian oil, India exports over 1 million barrels a day of refined petroleum. Navarro slammed the Biden administration for “largely looking the other way” while Trump’s team decided to act hard with a bold 50% tariff—half for unfair trade, half for national security. His message to India? “If India, the world’s largest democracy, wants to be treated like a strategic partner of the US, it needs to act like one. The road to peace in Ukraine runs through New Delhi.” Navarro painted a stark picture: while the US arms Ukraine, India bankrolls Russia, all while slapping some of the world’s highest tariffs on US goods—hurting American exporters and widening a $50 billion trade deficit. “They’re using our dollars to buy Russian oil. They make a killing and Ukrainians die,” he declared. But there’s more. Navarro pointed fingers at Indian weapons deals with Russia and demands on US firms to share sensitive military tech. He called this “strategic freeloading.” In a fiery TV interview, he said India can easily stop these tariffs by quitting Russian oil but accused New Delhi of “arrogance” in claiming it’s their sovereign right. In a controversial statement, Navarro branded the Russia-Ukraine conflict as “Modi’s war.” Even when corrected, he doubled down, insisting these oil deals feed Moscow’s aggression. Still, he called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a great leader” and described India as “a mature democracy.” Yet, he argued New Delhi’s actions hurt its claim to be a trusted US partner. Not everyone in the US agrees with Navarro’s fiery words. Some analysts point out that Washington hasn’t slapped penalties on China or the EU for buying Russian energy, and even the US imports Russian nuclear fuel and precious metals. But for now, Navarro’s message is loud and clear: India’s Russian oil ties risk its friendship with the US and fuel a war no one wants. So, will India rethink its moves, or is this just the start of a bigger global trade tussle? Only time will tell!

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Tags: Peter navarro, India, Russia-ukraine war, Us tariffs, Russian oil, Donald trump,