By Suresh Unnithan
President Donald Trump is proving a disaster to the US economy. His tariff war with many supplying nations, particularly China which supplies more than 17% of its API needs and many more—it is estimated that almost $1.3 billion worth of materials, raw materials are imported from China daily—could prove disastrous. The tariff escalation with India has already done damage to US’s consumer market, with 50% duties threatening $48.2 billion in exports and driving up prices for apparel, footwear, and jewelry by as much as 37-39%. The United States stands at a precipice, its economy battered by President Donald Trump’s erratic and shortsighted policies. His aggressive trade wars, paired with draconian immigration measures like the exorbitant H-1B visa fee hike, are inflicting deep wounds on American prosperity. With the national debt spiraling beyond $38 trillion and revenues lagging, these decisions are fueling inflation, crippling industries like healthcare and textiles, and stifling innovation. Trump’s divisive rhetoric, targeting immigrants from nations like India, further fractures society and tarnishes America’s global reputation. This article unravels the folly of these choices, exposing a presidency driven by spectacle rather than strategy, pushing the U.S. toward a decades-long setback.
The Trade War Blunder: Tariffs as Economic Self-Destruction
Trump’s trade policies, marketed as a revival of American greatness, have instead unleashed chaos, undermining the economy from within. His recent threats of 130% to 157% tariffs on Chinese imports, though slightly softened with admissions of unsustainability before talks with President Xi Jinping, have already disrupted global supply chains. These tariffs, averaging over 100% on many Chinese goods, have generated $2.4 trillion in revenue over a decade but at a devastating cost: soaring consumer prices, retaliatory tariffs from trading partners, and stunted economic growth.
The healthcare sector exemplifies the fallout. The U.S. depends on China and India for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), essential for medications. Trump’s tariffs have inflated API costs by 15-25%, triggering shortages and driving up drug prices. Hospitals face a 15% surge in operating costs, exacerbating inflation and threatening innovation in a sector still recovering from the pandemic. For patients, especially in rural areas, this translates to reduced access to affordable care, transforming a nationalist policy into a public health disaster.
The textile industry mirrors this self-inflicted damage. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs—27% on Indian imports and 20% on EU goods—have spiked costs for clothing, fabrics, and materials like lumber and furniture. Far from reviving domestic manufacturing, these measures have provoked retaliatory tariffs from China on U.S. agricultural exports like cotton and wheat, hammering farmers and inflating consumer prices. The broader impact is grim: tariffs on $350 billion of Chinese goods by 2019 prompted retaliation on $100 billion of U.S. exports, with ripple effects now hitting Canada, Mexico, and beyond. American households bear the burden through higher costs for essentials, from electronics to groceries, as global trade descends into disarray.
Immigration Blunders: Repelling Talent, Inviting Isolation
Trump’s immigration policies compound the economic damage, alienating skilled workers and undermining America’s competitive edge. The $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa petitions, introduced in September 2025, marks a tenfold increase, disrupting industries reliant on foreign talent. With over 70% of H-1B visa holders hailing from India, this policy has sparked outrage from tech firms, universities, and hospitals, who warn it will deter engineers, doctors, and researchers. The Chamber of Commerce and others have filed lawsuits, arguing the fee threatens economic stagnation by choking off access to global talent.
India’s government has condemned the policy as disruptive to families and humanitarian values, while Indian students in the U.S. face uncertainty over visa transitions. Trump’s rhetoric, laced with xenophobic tropes about immigrants from India and elsewhere as threats who “attack villages” or spread “crime and disease,” fuels anti-Asian hate and strains U.S.-India relations. His plans for mass deportations of 15-20 million people further reveal a cruel focus on theatrics over practicality, ignoring immigrants’ vital contributions to Silicon Valley, healthcare, and beyond. The result is a brain drain that cripples innovation, leaving the U.S. ill-equipped to compete in technology, medicine, and other critical fields.
False Peacemaking Claims: From Nobel Fantasies to Global Mockery
Trump’s grandiose assertions of global peacemaking further erode his credibility, turning the U.S. presidency into a laughingstock. His repeated claims of deserving a Nobel Peace Prize—citing the Abraham Accords or falsely claiming to have “ended seven or eight wars” in months—are detached from reality. The Accords, while normalizing Israel-Arab state relations, have not quelled regional violence, and his role in other conflicts is negligible. World leaders, from Emmanuel Macron to UN delegates, openly mock his boasts, with incidents like his complaint about a “bad escalator” at the UN drawing laughter reminiscent of 2018’s derision.
Particularly damaging are Trump’s fabricated claims of mediating between India and Pakistan, including over Kashmir. He has boasted of brokering ceasefires through tariff threats or direct intervention, yet India’s government has firmly rejected these assertions, labeling them lies. Such falsehoods strain U.S.-India ties and paint America as an unreliable global actor. Trump’s broader claims of resolving “many warring nations” similarly lack substance, eroding U.S. credibility as allies question its reliability and adversaries exploit the chaos.
A Debt Crisis Fuelled by Recklessness
Looming over these missteps is a national debt exceeding $38 trillion, up $2.2 trillion in the past year alone. Annual deficits are projected to surpass $1 trillion, with J.P. Morgan warning of a nation “going broke slowly.” Trump’s tariffs and unchecked spending accelerate this crisis, as revenue gains are dwarfed by economic slowdowns and rising borrowing costs. With debt outstripping revenue, the U.S. faces potential credit downgrades, higher interest rates, and slashed investments in infrastructure and education—cornerstones of long-term growth.
A Nation at Risk
Trump’s reckless policies—from tariffs that inflate healthcare and textile costs to immigration barriers that repel global talent, compounded by delusional claims of peacemaking—threaten to set the U.S. back decades. His divisive rhetoric against immigrants, particularly from India, fractures society and diminishes America’s global standing. The economy, burdened by ballooning debt and stifled innovation, faces a perilous future. Without a shift to pragmatic leadership, the U.S. risks a prolonged decline, its prosperity and influence eroded by a presidency prioritizing chaos over progress.
