Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed that while President Donald Trump once shared a very warm personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “that’s no longer the case,” adding that closeness with Trump never guarantees immunity from the “worst.”
Bolton’s assessment comes at a time many observers describe as the most difficult period in India-U.S. ties in more than twenty years, a downturn aggravated by Trump’s tariff-driven economic approach and the administration’s frequent criticism of New Delhi.
Speaking in an interview with the British media outlet LBC, Bolton argued that Trump tends to interpret global diplomacy primarily through the lens of his personal dealings with world leaders.
“If he believes he enjoys a positive relationship with Vladimir Putin, then he assumes Washington has a strong relationship with Moscow. That, of course, is simply not true,” Bolton said.
Bolton, who served as National Security Adviser during Trump’s first term and has since become one of his harshest critics, reiterated his scepticism about the former president’s style of diplomacy.
“Trump had an exceptionally good personal connection with Modi. I think that’s over now. And it should serve as a cautionary example, for instance, to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, that cordial personal relations may be useful at times, but they cannot shield leaders from the gravest outcomes,” he remarked.
Trump is expected to travel to the United Kingdom between September 17 and 19.
Personal Rapport ‘Gone Now’
In a social media post accompanying the interview, Bolton charged that Trump’s policies have “rolled back U.S.-India relations by decades, pushing Modi closer to Russia and China, with Beijing eagerly positioning itself as an alternative partner to the United States and Donald Trump.”
Bolton further contended that the manner in which Trump has treated New Delhi in recent months has damaged the long-standing bipartisan American strategy to gradually draw India away from its historic dependence on Russia, while simultaneously strengthening its recognition of China as the foremost strategic threat.
“That progress has been undone. I think it can be repaired again, but right now the situation is very troubling,” Bolton added.
He has previously asserted that the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in response to India’s purchase of Russian oil may have inadvertently nudged New Delhi closer toward the Beijing-Moscow bloc—an outcome he has characterised as a major “self-inflicted error.”
Meanwhile, Bolton himself is facing scrutiny at home, as his residence in Maryland and his office in Washington were recently searched by FBI investigators in connection with a criminal inquiry into the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
(With inputs from IBNS)
