Musk’s India move shows the cracks in Trump’s coalition
Elon Musk’s companies may finally have cracked open the Indian market, though the reaction from US President Donald Trump shows the coalition he’s constructed is more fragile than it appears.
Trump-Modi Meet
The mega MIGA, MAGA plans of India's Modi and US' Trump
Trump says India has more tariffs than others
Trump's 'golden rule' for imposing reciprocal tariffs
It wasn’t obvious to anyone whether Musk met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his recent trip to Washington as a businessman or as a representative of the US government. In fact, when Trump was asked that exact question, he seemed unsure of the answer.
Perhaps the correct comeback would have been “both.” Indians certainly seem to know how to handle this apparent contradiction. A few days later, Bloomberg News reported that Tesla Inc. was hiring in India, and that plans had been drawn up to ship a few thousand of its cars to the country. The newly empowered Musk seems to have finally gotten the market access he craves.
Tesla has long wanted to sell cars in India, but Musk has balked at the high tariffs that would be applicable on imported high-end EVs. The government, meanwhile, would far prefer that Musk manufacture in locally. Any agreement would involve them meeting in the middle: Last year, New Delhi said that any company investing $500 million in domestic manufacturing would be able to access lower tariffs on imports.
But here’s the problem: Trump wants all tariffs lowered. He has often said that Indian import levies make it impossible for American
