As the US-India trade consultations are still on, while India is all set to sign 'mother of all deals' with the EU, a major shocker dropped as it has been revealed that Vice President JD Vance is one of the major players stalling the deal. The other players are White House adviser Peter Navarro and President Donald Trump himself. This was leaked from Republican senator Ted Cruz's closed-door address to his donors. Ted Cruz is eying the 2028 presidential election and can throw Vance under the bus in front of his donors, as he said he had been battling the White House for a trade deal with India. JD Vance has not reacted to the claim.
This has shocked Indian-origin entrepreneurs and commentators as to how JD Vance, who is married to an Indian, who also came to India on a trip soon after becoming the vice president, stonewalled the deal with India.
Former Indian diplomat Kanwal Sibal analyzed that Vance probably wants to signal that Usha Vance's Indian origin does not make him soft on India. "On the contrary, he wants to assume a harder posture to acquire more credibility," Kanwal Sibal said.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the US made bigger sacrifices than the Europeans in the trade situation. "We have put 25% tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Guess what happened last week? The Europeans signed a trade deal with India. The Russian oil goes into India, the refined products come out, and the Europeans buy the refined products. They are financing the war against themselves," Bessent said ahead of the India-EU deal.
