The glaring disconnect between President Donald Trump calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi “my good friend” and his subsequent public savaging of India at the UN has revealed the ultimate emptiness of his personal style of diplomacy. The speech demonstrated that these professions of friendship are a thin veneer, easily discarded when they conflict with policy objectives.
For years, a central tenet of the Modi government’s US policy has been the cultivation of a close personal rapport with Trump. The hope was that this personal chemistry would create a reservoir of goodwill that could help smooth over policy differences and protect India’s interests.
Trump’s UN address proved this theory wrong. The “good friend” status offered no protection whatsoever. Trump did not hesitate to accuse Modi’s country of funding a war, threaten it with economic ruin, and publicly contradict its official history. The personal relationship was completely irrelevant in the face of a policy disagreement.
This reveals that Trump’s diplomacy is not truly personal; it is performative. The “friendship” is part of the show, a tool to create a positive atmosphere when it’s convenient. But the real decision-making is driven by a deeply transactional and impersonal “America First” calculus.
For India, this is a harsh but valuable lesson. It shows that relying on the personal whims of the US president is a flawed strategy. A resilient and stable relationship cannot be built on handshakes and praise; it must be built on a more durable foundation of shared interests and mutual respect, both of which were conspicuously absent from Trump’s UN speech.