Peter Navarro ignites outrage with 'Brahmin' attack

TOI correspondent from Washington: White House trade counselor Peter Navarro ignited another firestorm in the ongoing US-India trade spat, alleging, in reference to India selling refined Russian oil to the west, that "Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people."


The remark, coming on the heels of his characterizing India as a "laundromat for Kremlin," drew widespread indignation and condemnation, although the term Brahmin is often used in the US as a metaphor for elites. The expression ''Boston Brahmins'' was first used by the writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., in the 19th century to describe elite American families that claim hereditary and cultural pedigree from Protestants settlers on the East Coast.


“Modi is a great leader. I don't understand why he's getting into bed with Putin and Xi when he's the biggest democracy in the world. I would simply say to the Indian people, please, understand what is going on here, you got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop," Navarro said on Fox News, widely seen as the Trump administration's propaganda outlet.

The remarks did not go down well with most Indian intelligentsia, which lit into Navarro, showering him with epithets ranging from "sinister" to "senile," and called out the duplicity of the Washington coddling Moscow and Beijing when it was convenient for the US. Trolls went to town on social media, generating images showing Russian leader Vladimir Putin as "Vladimir Pandey" and Brahmins using "pure Russian oil" for Havan, the Hindu fire ritual.


Navarro, a widely discredited economist with few admirers outside MAGA circles (Elon Musk called him Peter Retardo), was also inflammatory in the domestic sphere on the tariff issue, calling Appeals Court judges who ruled against Trump's taxes on Friday, "politicians in black robes."


Navarro's ceaseless attack on India came even as the US State Department tried to salvage broader ties from the tariff train wreck, saying, through its embassy in New Delhi that it remains "a defining relationship of the 21st century."


"The partnership between the U.S and India continues to reach new heights — a defining relationship of the 21st century. This month, we’re spotlighting the people, progress, and possibilities driving us forward. From innovation and entrepreneurship to defense and bilateral ties, it’s the enduring friendship between our two peoples that fuels this journey," the embassy said in a post quoting Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as it launched a September 2025 campaign to highlight other aspects of US-India ties amid the trade conflagration.


Officials and bureaucrats from both sides who remain engaged in other spheres are trying to firewall areas such as science and technology, space, mil-to-mil engagements from the tariff spat. But Trump surrogates like Navarro, Bessent, and Hassett -- dubbed arsonists by those trying to stop further deterioration -- seem to be torching the relationship with daily attacks.

Former officials and analysts have criticized the lack of diplomatic finesse and message indiscipline emanating from the White House. But this appears to flow from the very top, with President Trump himself signaling displeasure with New Delhi with his characterization of India's economy as a "dead economy," although it remains the fastest growing large economy in the world.

"I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care," Trump said in a July 31 post on Truth Social. He has not touched on the subject after that, letting his attack dogs do the job.