The mandate of the US is overwhelmingly in favour of the Democrats and it is proof of a "repudiation of President Donald Trump," Ravi Agrawal, the editor-in-chief of the Foreign Policy magazine told NDTV today. And this, he said, is an opportunity for India to stand its ground.
In an exclusive interview with Shiv Aroor, Agrawal said while it was expected that Democrats will win the Congressional election, "taking the Senate by the margin that they have -- even with the few numbers still coming in -- is truly a rout".
Asked how President Trump is taking it, Agrawal said he is clearly hurting and is on the defensive. While ahead of the election, he tried to tell voters to vote as if he was the candidate, now he is "trying to distance himself saying he was not on the ballot".
Asked if in view of the verdict, impeachment of the US president is likely, Agrawal responded in the negative.
Given Trump's unique powers -- more so in recent years because of the Supreme Court -- Trump may lash out. "He may make very unpredictable moves," he added.
But what would also change is the reaction of the world, he said. "Countries and companies around the world -- they see when a leader is weakening, they are going to adapt how they approach the Trump administration," Agrawal said.
"In the last two years, companies and countries all tried to do a few different things. They flattered Trump, they tried to give him gifts, they tried to buy into cryptocurrencies that he favored, they nominated him for Nobel Peace Prizes. I think all of that is going to change in the coming months," he said.
"They will see this vote as an indication that you may have a Democrat in the White House in 2029, and therefore they are better off not kowtowing to Trump too much, not flattering him, but resisting him, and making the beginnings of outreach to people in the opposition. All of that weakens Trump much more than Congress possibly could," he said.
All this, he said, gives India more bargaining power.
"If you are a lower-level judge, a federal judge, you look at these trend lines and you say, yes, there's been a resistance, yes, there have been other courts that have stopped these tariffs, we could do more... And a country like India, whose diplomats are so well-versed with US politics and are looking at all these decisions very closely, they will know that they have a better set of cards than they did 18 months ago," he added.
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