Treaty for Terroristan, Penalty for India

SOME events occur twice in history—the first time as a comedy and the second as a farce. American President Donald Trump is both.

- PRABHU CHAWLA

On July 30, the reality-TV-host-turned-tariff-tyrant dropped a 25 percent economic bomb on Indian exports, while peddling a pack of diplomatic lies claiming he brokered peace between India and Pakistan. Trump traded fist bumps with Islamabad for backstabbing New Delhi. His economic ambush is engineered not for America, but for himself. Trump is wooing Pakistan's petroleum pushers and crypto cartels, planning pipelines and payment platforms that bypass scrutiny to boost his wallet. His net worth went up $600 million in a year, and his ethics down a black hole.

This nefarious act coming from the man who once embraced Narendra Modi in a stadium-sized spectacle of dollar-packed NRIs; his purred sweet-nothings like "true friend" and "great leader" stink of hypocrisy today. Trump, the transactional demagogue, has entered into a bromance with Pakistan, which continues to nurture terror camps in its backyard. Behind the orange facade and MAGA mutterings lies a man motivated not by morality, but by dollars to shore up his shady empire.

His alliance with Pakistan's General Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah is a calculated conspiracy cloaked in cowardice, dragging India back into the nightmares of old. Remember 1971, when Richard Nixon dispatched the formidable aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to bully India during the Bangladesh war? Indira Gandhi didn't blink. India didn't bend. And history remembers the one who stood tall. This time, history repeats not as farce, but as warning. Trump is Nixon in a red tie, siding with Islamabad again. The only difference this time is that the US is standing with Pakistan with tariffs and tweets. But India, then and now, refuses to bend.