New Delhi: Hours after he said that a 25% tariff, plus a penalty, will be imposed on India starting August 1, US president Donald Trump said this morning (July 31) on his Truth Social app that he does not care what India does with Russia and the two “dead economies” can go “down together”.“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” he said.“We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World,” he said, repeating the crux of what he wrote yesterday, when he started by calling India “a friend” and then went on to say that over the years, the US had done relatively little business with them because India’s tariffs were “far too high, among the highest in the world”.Trump had also criticised India for maintaining trade ties with Russia, and imposed an additional penalty over and above the tariff because of it.“Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together,” he wrote in his latest post. “Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”Trump’s move to shorten the deadline for Russia to stop military operations in Ukraine got a response from Medvedev, who is the deputy chairman of the Security Council.“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10,” Medvedev wrote on X. “He should remember two things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”Earlier, Trump had written on Truth Social: “WE HAVE A MASSIVE TRADE DEFICIT WITH INDIA!!!”The Ministry of Commerce and Industry responded to Trump’s announcement with a statement saying it is studying the implications of the tariffs.Trump’s disavowal of India comes despite prime minister Narendra Modi’s stated closeness with him. Opposition leaders have questioned the Indian government’s “complicit silence” in this.Congress veteran P. Chidambaram has posted on X:“The 25 per cent tariff on all Indian exports to the United States PLUS penalty for buying Russian oil is a big blow to India’s trade with the U.S.‘Dosti’ is no substitute for diplomacy and painstaking negotiationsThe tariff imposed by the U.S. is a clear violation of the WTO rulesWhat happened to MIGA + MAGA = MEGA?