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U.S. Treasury Secretary’s “Insulting” Remark About Indian Currency Hits a Nerve

by in Daily Edition | August 28, 2025 4 min read

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok) The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on all goods from India — Trump’s has said he wants India to stop importing Russian oil, which is helping to finance Russia’s war against Ukraine — Fox News star Maria Bartiromo asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “Do you worry that India will set trade in the rupee?”

She laughed, and then added, “and they’ll do trade with rupee currency with the BRICS nations instead of the U.S. dollar?”

[Note: The economic group BRICS is named for its four founding member nations: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The U.S. was, until recently, India’s largest trading partner.]

Bessent replied: “There are a lot of things I worry about. The rupee becoming a reserve currency is not one of them.” Bartiromo laughed again. Bessent added: “The rupee is at an all time low against the US dollar.”

[NOTE: Bessent knows about currency valuation, having made his name and much of his fortune as a currency trader, most famously as part of the small group of financiers working with George Soros in 1992 to bet billions against the British pound and ultimately “break” the Bank of England in 1992.]

Many Indian political pundits are responding negatively to Bessent’s comments, including Indian journalist Vikram Chandra, founder of the video news platform Editorji. Chandra wrote to his more than 2.7 million followers on X: “It’s as if there is a determination to destroy relations right now. The more insulting the remarks, the tougher it becomes to find an off-ramp.”

Chandra added: “Till now most experts in India thought that a BRICS currency would be a bad idea – because it could be yuan dominated, and India would prefer a dollar dominated world. Because the US is a friendly strategic partner, and China is .. you know.

“Now many will flip their view. Just for the pleasure of erasing that Bessent smirk.”

On the day the tariffs went into effect this week, President Narendra Modi of India — which has the world’s fifth largest economy — wrote on social media: “Had a good conversation with President Alexander Stubb. Finland is a valued partner in the EU. Discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in key sectors such as trade, technology and sustainability. Exchanged perspectives on the ongoing efforts for peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.” (A NATO member, Finland borders Russia.)

(Stubb concurred with Modi about the good conversation, writing: “We discussed the need for a just and lasting solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ending the war is in all our interests, it’s a shared goal. India plays an important role. It is heard and respected in the South, West and East. We also agreed on the need to further deepen the relations between India and the EU. Our cooperation grows and continues.”)

Chandra also shared the clip below of Trump’s chief trade advisor Peter Navarro, who essentially blamed India’s oil purchases for the Ukraine-Russia war, calling it, at one point, “Modi’s war.” Navarro claimed “everybody in America loses because of what India is doing.”

Chandra’s shared post included the opinion of journalist Sreemoy Talukdar, who conjectured that the “real reason” Trump is punishing India with tariffs is “driven by Trump’s personal pique at India not bending the knee to His Royal Highness.”