അമേരിക്കൻ തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പിലെ ഡെമോക്രാറ്റുകളുടെ വൻ വിജയം ട്രംപിന്റെ 'മാഗ' നയങ്ങളുടെ അന്ത്യം കുറിച്ചെന്ന് സാമ്പത്തിക വിദഗ്ധൻ ജെഫ്രി ഡി സാക്സ്. ട്രംപ് ഇപ്പോൾ ദുർബലനായ ഭരണാധികാരിയായി മാറിയെന്നും, ഇന്ത്യയ്ക്കെതിരായ തീരുവ ഭീഷണികൾ ഇതോടെ അവസാനിച്ചുവെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു. ഇന്ത്യ ഇപ്പോൾ അനുകൂലമായ വ്യാപാര നയങ്ങൾക്കായി അമേരിക്കയുമായി ചർച്ചകൾക്ക് മുൻകൈ എടുക്കണമെന്നും സാക്
Economist Jeffrey D Sachs told NDTV the roots of the Republican wipeout lie in Donald Trump's betrayal of his own core promise to keep the US out of foreign conflicts
NDTV's Shiv Aroor speaks to economist Jeffrey D Sachs
New Delhi:
The sweeping Democratic victory across the US Congress marks the definitive collapse of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and leaves President Donald Trump a politically crippled "lame duck" whose tariff regime against India is effectively over, world-renowned economist Jeffrey D Sachs told NDTV today.
Speaking from Varanasi after the Democrats captured both the House of Representatives and the Senate - flipping deep-red Republican strongholds in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina - Sachs declared the continental-wide verdict a fatal blow to Trump's agenda.
"He will stay in office until January 20, 2029 but he is a lame duck; his policies are finished. In American politics, this is the end of Trumpism. That's what's important," the bestselling author and global leader in sustainable development told NDTV.
For India, which has weathered months of turbulent bilateral ties, tariff threats and Middle East energy shocks during Trump's second term, the electoral rout hands India a decisive leverage at the negotiating table, Sachs said.
"India should put forward an open trade proposition right now; say, 'Look, the decks are cleared. Here is how we can move forward. No more fighting. Let's just get on with our business'," Sachs said, urging New Delhi to propose low, flat tariffs to return to normalcy while capitalising on how politically weakened Trump is.
Sachs argued that Trump's unilateral application of trade duties was already thrown out by the US Supreme Court and lacked constitutional backing. "Trump doesn't have the authority; the American people absolutely have repudiated these tariffs. They paid for them. It is taxation without representation because Congress did not vote for this," he said.
He criticised Washington's trade negotiators and asked Indian officials not to yield to strong-arm pressure tactics, adding the incompetence of Trump's economic team cannot be exaggerated "because the incompetence is stunning".
"They're flailing around; they are a bunch of lawyers who do trade lawsuits who don't understand anything about the economics of our world... You remember, Trump would do it in one day to the next: 'I penalise India, I put on these sanctions.' Those days are over."
Sachs also cautioned New Delhi against entering strategic alliances with Washington - including the Quad grouping aimed at containing China - arguing that the world's most populous nation and third-largest economy must stand on its own in a multipolar world operating under the United Nations (UN) charter.
"Don't trust this administration; don't trust the United States, for that matter. Don't become an ally of the United States," Sachs said. "People said, 'Oh, but we have an inside track, we'll get a good trade policy.' I tell them, 'You have no inside track, believe me, and there's no special relationship here, especially with Trump'. He doesn't have any special relations except with his bank account."
Sachs called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to act through the BRICS grouping - which includes Iran - to halt the conflict in the Middle East that has strangled global commerce and threatened India's energy security.
He said it is possible for BRICS to stand up and demand not to restart any war since the grouping represents half the world's population and half the world's GDP, adding a unified diplomatic pressure from leaders Trump respects would dramatically lower oil and gas prices and could quickly bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine as well.
According to Sachs, the roots of the Republican wipeout lie in Trump's betrayal of his own core promise to keep the US out of foreign conflicts, alongside soaring living costs and a demographic rejection of White-nationalist politics.
"MAGA politics meant two things, so we have to be clear about that. One was Trump saying, 'I won't get us into further endless wars.' Trump repudiated MAGA and then his base turned on him," Sachs said.
Voters struggling to pay household bills amid surging oil, gas and electricity prices linked their economic distress to the US' military intervention against Tehran and its complicity in the Middle East conflicts driven by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also lost his parliamentary majority in Israel's Knesset elections, Sachs noted.
Even inside Trump's inner circle, figures harbouring 2029 presidential ambitions including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now restrain Trump from ordering fresh military strikes while a Democratic-controlled Congress cuts off budget appropriations for his policies, Sachs said.
The second pillar of the MAGA movement - an explicitly anti-immigration agenda reliant on a predominantly White voter base - collapsed as Hispanic voters abandoned the Republicans, Sachs said.
"MAGA was largely a white base; it tried to talk the Hispanic vote into Trumpism, but the Hispanic vote departed from Trump. In this sense, we've just elected the most multi-ethnic Congress in our history and governorships as well," Sachs said.
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