The US President is threatening India by imposing a tariff of 50%, out of which 25% has already been imposed, with the rest to be imposed by August 27th. While imposing a tariff, Trump blamed India for financing the Russia-Ukraine war by importing crude oil from Russia. The European Union (EU) is buying oil and gas from Russia, and by doing so EU is not supporting the war, but India does. This shows the hypocrisy of US President Donald Trump, who is all about himself.
The blog post highlights the three factors that highlight the hypocrisy of Donald Trump while dealing with India on tariffs.
Biggest Importer of Russian crude Oil is CHINA
Russia started a war with Ukraine in February 2022, and since the beginning of the war, the US has started imposing sanctions on Russia. Even after sanctions, the European Union kept buying oil from Russia. However, the impact on exporting Russia’s crude oil was minimal, and the credit goes to China and India. These countries focused on national interest and imported Russia’s crude oil at a discounted rate.
“Exports from Russia to China increased by 500,000 b/d between 2020 and 2024, and China remains the largest importer of Russia’s crude oil and condensate, averaging 2.2 million b/d in 2024 and 2.0 million b/d in 1H25.”
Report of the International Energy Agency (IEA)
It clearly states that China is the biggest importer of Russia’s crude oil, but Trump zipped his mouth on being asked about it. For your knowledge, US has imposed a tariff of 30% on China.
On August 3rd, 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported,
“China is limiting the flow of critical minerals to Western defense manufacturers, delaying production and forcing companies to scour the world for stockpiles of the minerals needed to make everything from bullets to jet fighters.”
By Wall Street Journal
This shows Trump’s hypocrisy in dealing with India while supporting China for business. It seems Trump is acting as a businessman rather than a US President.
Asia Prevented Market Disruption
In the presidency of Joe Biden, to prevent the market from disruption, the US encouraged India to import crude oil from Russia. Due to the Russia-Ukraine War, the Europeans have started looking for other sources to buy crude oil, as they are NATO members. But Asian countries are not a part of NATO; hence, the US requested India and China to buy oil from Russia, so that the market can be prevented from major disruption.
This was highlighted by India’s Official Statement, read below.
“India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening the global energy market’s stability.”
By Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) India
Does Trump want to increase the oil price globally?
Trump’s statements and actions are unpredictable as he keeps changing and contradicting his statements. Recently, on being asked about imposing a 100% tariff on India and China for purchasing Russian energy, Trump said, “I never said a percentage, but we’ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time. But we will see what happens.”
Trump has always had a goal of increasing the US’s Shale Gas production, which can maximise profits for the petroleum industry in the US. However, Shale Gas is profitable only if crude prices are above a certain threshold.
“The incentive, if you will, to just drill, baby, drill…I just don’t believe that companies are going to do that.”
By Wil VanLoh, chief executive of private equity group Quantum Energy Partners, one of the shale sector’s biggest investors
This statement raises questions: Why is Trump banning India from buying Russia’s oil, despite knowing the oil price will rise globally? Trump is also pressuring India to buy aircraft like F-35 and energy from the US at a high price compared to Russia’s rate. Well, India gave a befitting reply to the US by rejecting the proposal of buying F-35; instead, India plans to purchase Sukoi from Russia.
After imposing a tariff on India, Trump expected that India would bow down, but on the contrary, India reached out to Russia and China. This shows that India took calculated measures, and the statements clearly show that for India, protecting economic interests is more important. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, urged the people of India to buy Swadeshi Products.