US economist Jeffrey Sachs has intensified his critique of the Trump administration’s decision to levy 50 percent punitive tariffs on India, describing President Donald Trump as the “great unifier” of the BRICS—an alliance of leading emerging economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Speaking on Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti’s Breaking Points show, Sachs labeled Trump’s tariffs as “the stupidest tactical move in US foreign policy.”
"These tariffs on India are not a strategy; they're sabotage. It's the stupidest tactical move in US foreign policy," Sachs argued, pointing to the danger that these duties pose to Washington's relationship with an important ally in Asia.
The professor at Columbia University cautioned that Trump's tariffs could have serious and long-term consequences, saying that they represent an important factor in bringing the BRICS countries together.
"The imposition of the 25 per cent penalty tariff on India, what it did overnight was to coalesce the BRICS nations as never before," he added, highlighting that the act brought the forum together more with coordination, as opposed to US strategic interests.
"Donald Trump was the BRICS great unifier. And terrific. Alright, I'm a fan of the BRICS, by the way, so I don't mind that one bit. But the opposite of what Lindsey Graham or Peter Navarro might have been thinking occurred," Sachs said.
Redirecting his scorn at the South Carolina senator, he said, "Lindsey Graham is the worst senator in the US. He's an idiot. Just an idiot."
Sachs, who has been counselling governments for decades, also attacked Trump's former trade adviser Navarro, describing him as "probably the most incompetent PhD my old department has ever awarded."
"He has a PhD in economics but clearly learned nothing," Sachs said.
He went on to note that by imposing tariffs on India—a country with which the US has built strategic and diplomatic ties—Trump "destroyed trust overnight."
"Even if this 25 per cent tariff penalty is dropped, the Indians have learned a lesson: You cannot trust the United States," Sachs said, underscoring that the tariffs did not bring about any effective leverage to negotiations but rather consolidated international alignments.
"Zero practical effect on getting anybody to any negotiating table. Zero. But it totally discredited one thread of US foreign policy accumulated over the years," he added.
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