Trump merely fiddles — his offerings are poisonous

By RN Bhaskar

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This article is being written amid the fog of war.  One does not know which way this war will end.  But if current indications are considered, Trump, with his past crimes of commission and omission, will ruin much of the world.  Israel could be decimated, and the US may emerge terribly weakened.

This is despite calls by Trump asking Iran to surrender unconditionally (https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-6-17-2025), stating that he prevented the killing of the Supreme Leader in Iran “for now”.  Trump has adopted the language of the mafia, and has become complicit in assassinations as well, in addition to being an accomplice in the crimes of ethnic cleansing, mass starvation and genocide. It is now well known that Trump was involved in the killing of a top Iranian general during his first term (https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-tehran-international-news-iraq-ali-khamenei-5597ff0f046a67805cc233d5933a53ed). In fact, both Israel and the US have connived to kill the very emissaries who have been involved in negotiations.  In global diplomacy, this is the worst crime any country can commit.

The irony is that if the US does get battered and weakened (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLpS613RFI), along with Israel, India may still have a glimmer of hope.  Else India too could be delivered one body blow after another.

Why India?

Why is India in the picture?  For several reasons.

One, because it is being bullied by the US.

Two, because India’s policymakers have possibly compromised themselves, and the US has been using information about where they have stashed away their booty. For more details listen to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, at his public address in Delhi in 2023.  You can find the relevant lines at timeline 18:47 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiA8Ex9KQo4).  Donald Trump appears to be bullying and blackmailing India to do the bidding of Uncle Sam.

Three, the meeting that Prime Minister Modi had with Donald Trump in the White house — shortly after he became President for a second term – did not go very well for the Indian Prime minister.  Among several things discussed, and things that Modi is said to have acquiesced to ( https://asiaconverge.com/2025/04/indias-agriculture-under-immense-threat/) were

(a) that India would import the F35 planes, and

(b) that it would open its doors to us agricultural items.

Dairy products

One of the most vexatious is dairy products, because this sector is the most crucial of rural sectors.  It accounts for a share of India’s GDP that is higher than the combined contribution of both ice and wheat. It is this sector that has allowed for some degree of prosperity for small and marginal farmers.

If Trump survives the wars in Israel and Ukraine, you can be sure that pressures will mount to compel India to purchase agricultural produce as well from the US.  That will be disastrous for the Indian economy.

Boeing and India

There are also good reasons to believe that the US has been pressuring India to purchase the Boeings made in the US.  The Air India crash has raised such fears.

Fortunately, the Tata group has been wise not to put all its eggs in the Boeing basket. In its press release of 20 June 2023 (https://www.airindia.com/in/en/newsroom/press-release/airbus-boeing-orders-confirmed.html), Air India stated that “its firm orders include 34 A350-1000, six A350-900, 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777X widebody aircraft, as well as 140 Airbus A320neo, 70 Airbus A321neo and 190 Boeing 737MAX narrowbody aircraft.”

Track record

In any case the track record for Boeing has not been very good.  Boeing has its justifications though.  It claims that it has more flights, and more aircraft than Airbus in the US.  Hence its accidents are bound to be a greater number than that of Airbus. However, the way Boeing’s shares have crashed post Covid, and not those of Airbus, suggests that the market is unwilling to buy these justifications.

There may be other reasons too.  But the above are the most significant.

USA trapped

Tragically, for the US. It seems to have walked into a trap of its own making.  As recently as November 2024, the prestigious Quincyinst.org (https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-stockpiles-missiles/) warned that the arsenal of missiles that the US used to boast about, is fast depleting.  The Biden government gave away missiles to Israel and to Ukraine more rapidly than they could be replenished.  Now the US is left with fewer missiles that he has been compelled to stop shipments to Ukraine.  Shipments to Israel may also slow down.

Says the Quincy Institute report, “Shedding more light on roughly what our current reserves of missiles looks like, the Wall Street Journal estimates that when training exercises and the retirement of older weapons are taken into account, only about 4,000 TLAM remained as of 2020 and since then the U.S. has only produced another 250 or so TLAMs. Consequently, with large numbers of TLAMS, SM-2 and other SM-type missiles having been expended in 2023 and 2024, our nation’s missile stockpile continues to be depleted.”

The other side effect of the two war theatres is that US equipment has proved to be no match either for the Russians or even the Iranians.  Iranian missiles have destroyed the much touted F 35s – First in May 2024, when the world’s most heavily fortified airport in Nevatim —  housing the F 35s and communication equipment — was destroyed (free subscription — https://bhaskarr.substack.com/p/global-fragmentation-new-alignments).  Then in the recent skirmish when 3 F35s were shot down by Iran’s air defence system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIAqxeEShvI). Also check out the Military Watch pages at https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/iran-shoots-down-third-f35-captures-second-pilot .

Nothing could have put the F35s in a perspective better than Masirah TV (https://english.masirahtv.net/post/48370/The-Fall-of-the-F-35-Iran-Shatters-the-Myth-of-Western-Air-Supremacy).

Effectively, much of US defence sales across the world could get affected.  With that, the clout that the US enjoys in military and hence globally is likely to get severely diminished.

The weakening of the US would allow India to recover from the bullying that it has been subject to by the hands of the US.

Very interesting times ahead.

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Do view my latest podcast on how the US wants to ruin India’s farmers. You can view it at https://youtu.be/anz5So-Xu6c

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And do watch our daily “News Behind the News” podcasts, streamed ‘live’ every morning, Monday through Friday, at 8:15 am IST. The latest can be found at https://www.youtube.com/live/JhNlvBpitX8?si=r62xr8VzREsC5xZ_