Democratic US lawmaker Ro Khanna has launched a scathing attack against President Donald Trump while blaming him for deteriorating ties with India. Khanna, an Indian-American, said that Trump’s war against Iran has proved utterly destructive for fuel prices in India. He also slammed Trump for irrational tariffs against India and China. “The US-India relationship has been at its lowest point in the last 30 years. Trump’s policies of getting into a war with Iran have been utterly destructive,” said Khanna while addressing USISP FIX Leadership Summit 2026.
Khanna also talked about leading in AI and said that 38 percent of the world’s top AI researchers are of Chinese origin and 72 percent hold foreign degrees. “He (Trump) is now a lame-duck President. Democrats will win decisively in 2026, and we will win again in 2028,” said Khanna.
“It has been utterly destructive to the prices of gas in India. Talk to Jaishankar if you don’t believe me. The idea that we engaged in a unilateral war without our allies, without even consulting Europe or Canada or India, and made a mess of the world has hurt our credibility,” said Khanna.
He further criticised the Trump administration for the ‘irrationality of the tariff war’. “I was in China, and the Indian ambassador said to me, a generation of trust has been lost by this president of yours….The new generation is not only going to have to rebuild America, but we’re also going to have to rebuild our relationships around the world,” said Khanna.
The Democrat lawmaker said that the US had served as a symbol of aspiration and humanity inspiring people to come to America. “Now you have an America that has forgotten that moral vision, that has a foreign policy of might makes right, threatening not just Iran, threatening Cuba, threatening to conquer Greenland, having dinner as if everything is normal. Of course, it’s not normal,” said Khanna, while hinting at Trump’s crackdown against immigrants.
Khanna said that Trump is ‘literally destroying America’s leadership’ in the world and slammed the President over his ‘demagoguery about immigrants’. “How can we sit here and not condemn his policies on what he has done with student visas, with the demonisation of talent coming to the United States, with the sense of no understanding of the history of the civil rights movement,” said Khanna.
Khanna further said that President Trump doesn’t understand that America needs to recruit talent, not turn them away. He also highlighted the community’s significant contributions to America’s innovation, economy, and public life.
Notably, Khanna’s statement came amid US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor’s remarks at the same event where Gor hailed the friendship between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
