Trump's mandate is economy, not Greenland; ties with India will be a priority

Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California in the US House of Representatives, is a prominent political voice in the Democratic Party.

- Prashant Jha

WASHINGTON: Now in his fifth term in the House, Khanna is the co-chair of the House caucus on India and Indian-Americans. In a conversation with HT on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Khanna spoke about domestic American politics and foreign policy under Donald Trump:

When you look back at the elections, what was that mandate?

People were upset about the economy. It's rough out there. Their jobs aren't paying enough. The cost of gas, groceries, rent is high. The cost of childcare, healthcare is high. And they wanted change.

How do you think Trump is interpreting the mandate?

I think he is over-reading his election as people who win, often do. People were upset and wanted change. But they don't want to end to vaccines. They don't want us to be going and annexing Greenland. They don't want us to have a mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants. They don't want tax breaks for the very wealthy. So he risks over-reading the mandate.

You represent Silicon Valley. When you think about their influence in DC, what are you excited about and what are you worried about?

I am worried that the wealth of Silicon Valley will get accumulated in a few areas, and that a lot of the country is going to be stagnant. My hope is that we can channel this technology revolution into bringing new wealth and economic stability and prosperity into places across America.

The two broad areas that the tech community seems to be invested in are AI and crypto. What is your broad take on both those areas?