From Houston to headaches: the rollercoaster of Modi-Trump ties
Their 2019 show of camaraderie in Houston promised a strong partnership, but in the aftermath of a delicate India-Pakistan ceasefire the ties between Trump and Modi have veered into uneasy territory
THE WORLDVIEW
May 17, 2025
WHEN Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump shared the stage at the ‘Howdy Modi’ rally in Houston, Texas, in September 2019, the world took notice. Before a crowd of nearly 50,000 Indian Americans, the two leaders exchanged warm words, handshakes and a mutual embrace of populist politics.
Trump, who was then serving his first term as US president, appeared at what was ostensibly an event to honour Modi — a highly unusual move in diplomatic circles. Yet, for a while, it seemed to work.
The Houston moment was touted as the dawn of a deeper strategic partnership. On the occasion Modi famously co-opted his own 2014 campaign slogan to proclaim, “Abki baar, Trump Sarkar” (“This time, a Trump government”), delighting both the audience and Trump’s campaign operatives. In return, the president positioned himself as a friend of India, willing to champion the concerns of the Indian diaspora and strengthen defence and trade ties.
But diplomatic relationships built on personality rather than policy can shift quickly, and the Modi-Trump dynamic has proven no exception.
Fast forward to the present day, and the two leaders now find themselves at odds. The irritant? A ceasefire between India and Pakistan — a rare and fragile truce in a region where tensions simmer constantly. What has irked New Delhi is not the ceasefire itself, but the manner in which it was communicated to the world.
Donald Trump — now serving his second term as president and ever the showman — first ensured that a ceasefire had indeed been agreed upon by the Pakistani and Indian leaders, and then took to social media to claim credit for brokering the truce. He praised his own role, and that of his Vice President and Secretary of State, in defusing the situation.
Not only that, in an apparent attempt to outmanoeuvre the warring sides he announced the ceasefire before any official statement could be made by India or Pakistan. He also suggested that the United States would be willing to mediate between Islamabad and Delhi over the longstanding Kashmir dispute. For India, this was where Trump crossed the proverbial red line.
Since 10th May, when he announced the ceasefire, the president has persistently taken credit for brokering the truce. He is currently on a tour of various countries and, in almost every speech he makes at public events, he ensures that the ceasefire is mentioned — often by himself.
Trump’s constant promotion of himself as “the great leader who stopped a possible nuclear war between two great nations” has put Modi in a tight spot. Ever since the announcement of the ceasefire, the Indian media has been wondering whether Modi gave the US president a nod to help stop the hostilities and mediate between the two sides. For them the particularly worrying factor was what they called the “re-emergence of the Kashmir question on the world stage”.
Initially, Modi and other Indian officials kept mum. They did not try to set the record straight, particularly on the issue of mediation on the Kashmir question, which is a strict no-no under longstanding Indian policy. But several days later, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has clarified India’s position.
“All matters with Pakistan will be dealt with bilaterally,” he stated, reiterating the old policy that rejects any third-party mediation on Kashmir. Jaishankar’s remarks were not only a response to Trump’s presumptive diplomacy but a reassertion of India’s stance — a position that had been subtly undermined by Trump’s pronouncements.
This episode is more than just a spat. It signals a deeper discomfort within India’s strategic community about being drawn into Trump’s brand of headline-grabbing diplomacy. Trump’s impulsive announcements have proven both unpredictable and unwelcome.
Observers note that Modi’s silence on Trump’s antics represents a telling abstinence from a leader who had once enthusiastically embraced the optics of partnership. While diplomatic channels remain open and cooperation continues on various fronts, the personal rapport that once characterised the Modi-Trump relationship appears to have cooled.
In many ways, the current friction underscores the limitations of diplomacy rooted in spectacle. The Houston rally may have showcased a high point in Indo-US camaraderie, but it also blurred lines between political campaigning and international diplomacy. As the situation now reveals, when global leaders attempt to choreograph geopolitics for dramatic effect, the aftermath can be diplomatically messy.
As India and the US recalibrate their positions in a changing world order, the future of the Modi-Trump equation remains uncertain — although the former would likely never want to offend the latter for obvious reasons.