US President Donald Trump reportedly refused to accept official data from his own administration on tariffs imposed by India on American goods and argued with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the figures, according to a new book.
“Nobody has f***ing given me any numbers. Hard facts of how much China tariffs us, how much India tariffs us. You give me bullshit numbers,” Trump was quoted as saying in the book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump”.
The book, written by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, says Trump believed India was imposing extremely high tariffs, around 175% on US products, far above the actual figures recorded by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
When Lutnick presented the official USTR data to Trump, the president reportedly rejected the numbers and questioned their accuracy. Lutnick even repeated, “No, these are the real numbers! They come from USTR,” but Trump reportedly refused to accept the data and said the numbers were wrong.
The argument came before the US first imposed a 25% tariff on India as part of its “Liberation Day” trade in April 2025.
Several US officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have also described India as the “maharaja of tariffs”.
A White House fact sheet issued in connection with an interim India-US trade understanding also stated that India maintains some of the highest tariffs on the US. It claimed about average tariffs of around 37% on agricultural goods, with duties on certain automobiles exceeding 100%.
In August 2025, Trump accused India of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine because India was buying Russian oil. Citing this, he imposed another 25% tariff, taking the total US tariff on India to 50%.
At that time, India became one of the countries facing the highest US tariffs, along with countries like Brazil and China.
On February 2, 2026, India and the US announced a framework for a trade deal that would bring the tariff on New Delhi down to 18%. Trump also removed the additional 25 per cent tariff linked to Russian oil.
