‘Trump lashed out at Commerce Secretary over tariffs’:Report claims US Prez told Howard Lutnick, ‘Your figures are nonsense’

US President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at his own officials during a meeting over tariffs imposed by India and China. According to a new book, Trump believed India levies much higher tariffs on US goods than official figures suggest. The book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, claims that Trump told Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick he was not being given accurate information about tariffs imposed by India and China. According to the book, when Lutnick presented official tariff figures, Trump dismissed them as well. He reportedly said the numbers were “nonsense” and claimed that India imposes tariffs of at least 175% on US goods. India’s average tariff is 16% According to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO), India’s average Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff stood at 15.8% in 2025. In simple terms, if India imports 100 different categories of goods, the average tariff applied across all of them works out to around 16%. In 2023, India’s trade-weighted average tariff was about 12%. This measure gives greater weight to goods that account for a larger share of trade. In other words, the average tariff actually paid in real trade transactions is closer to 12%. This is why reports by the WTO and the US Trade Representative (USTR) describe India as a relatively high-tariff country, but do not cite a figure of 175% for India’s overall tariff structure. Howard Lutnick, one of the leading supporters of Donald Trump’s tariff policies, also cited India and China during his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2025. He argued that high tariffs do not necessarily lead to inflation, pointing out that both India and China have maintained relatively controlled inflation despite having higher tariff rates. According to the book, Lutnick later found himself in a difficult position, with Trump making politically charged claims about tariffs while official government data did not fully support those claims. Trump said India would not agree The book’s references to India are not limited to the trade dispute. It also makes an interesting claim about discussions on the Russia-Ukraine war shortly after the start of Trump’s second term. According to the report, during a meeting in the Oval Office on January 30, 2025, Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, presented a proposal aimed at ending the war. The meeting included discussions about deploying peacekeeping forces to Ukraine. When the idea of sending troops from NATO countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands was raised, US Vice President JD Vance expressed concerns. He reportedly believed that deploying NATO troops to Ukraine could provoke Russia and risk drawing the US more directly into the conflict. Vance then suggested seeking assistance from non-European countries instead, proposing Saudi Arabia and India as potential contributors to a peacekeeping force. The book claims that President Donald Trump laughed when he heard the suggestion. He reportedly said, “The Indians would never do that. They’re not going to spend their own money on something like that.” Trump claimed Modi likes him, criticised Zelenskyy: Book The book also claims that Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes him a lot and wants to visit the US to meet him. Trump also criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a “bad negotiator”. He reportedly said Zelenskyy had ruined his country by failing to negotiate effectively, but was very successful at getting support and concessions from the Biden administration.