Trump 'Snatches' What He Wants From Marco Rubio; Then Boasts His Cabinet Room 'Heist' On Live TV
/ Jul 09, 2025, 08:17PM IST
Donald Trump turned a Cabinet meeting into a comedy sketch after admitting he 'snatched' a clock from Secretary of State Marco Rubio's office all in the name of redecorating. The former president bragged about his Mar-a-Lago-style makeover of the Cabinet Room, casually revealing he took the 'gorgeous' clock without permission, telling Rubio, 'I have the right to do it.' This package breaks down the viral moment, Trump's unapologetic interior design choices, and the laughter-filled exchange that's now making headlines.
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Hindustan Times
16 minutes ago
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Trump open to trilateral summit with Putin, Zelensky amid peace deal efforts
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
P Chidambaram writes: Bull(y) in India's shop
India had a Luddite attitude toward foreign trade, especially imports. Despite NAM, South-South, etc., we were wary of foreign countries in the matter of trade and foreign investment. We pulled down the shutters and refused to open them for four decades. We wrote the dreaded manuals for import and export: everything required licenses and permits. Most imports, and some exports, were 'canalised' through state-owned corporations. We had an officer called Chief Controller of Imports and Exports who had an army of officers spread throughout the country whose only business was to issue licenses for imports and exports. It was a profitable business. No one paused to ask the obvious question, 'Alright, we understand why we have a controller of imports, but why do we have a controller of exports?' The policy did not boost exports or build an export-oriented manufacturing sector or augment the foreign exchange reserves. Meanwhile, several countries, whose economies were at the same level as India's, opted for an open economy and allowed free trade, and became rich. A combination of factors brought the Indian economy to the edge of a financial crisis in 1990-91. India was forced to embrace economic reforms. Trade policy reforms, industrial policy reforms, and a focus on fiscal discipline pulled India back from the brink, and put the economy on a growth path. We lowered tariffs (the average was brought down to 12 per cent by 2013) and diluted non-tariff barriers. We signed GATT and became a member of the World Trade Organization. We signed Free Trade Agreements. We can confidently say that Indians have accepted that the economy must be an open economy. Shockingly, however, when developing countries have converted to an open economy, the original open economies have turned 'protectionist'. None more than the United States under President Donald Trump. Taking measures to stave off a temporary crisis is one thing, elevating protectionism to the status of official economic policy is another. Mr Trump is unapologetically in favour of high tariffs, opaque non-tariff measures, discouraging imports, balanced trade with every country, and threatening American companies not to locate their factories outside America. He believes that 'tariffs' will accomplish what he desires. He has brought into policy-making weird factors such as bias for Republican-leaning states, prejudice against Canada's leaders, false arguments like the American economy no longer creates new jobs for Americans, and bizarre claims that the burden of high tariffs will be borne by the exporters and not the American consumer. Mr Trump has dismissed proven economic truths such as factor disparities, specialisation, division of labour, supply chains, etc. Mr Trump has maniacally insisted that American companies must bring manufacturing back to America. He calls it re-shoring. The Harvard Business Review had an article titled 'Bringing Manufacturing Back to U.S. is Easier Said Than Done'. It said, 'the days are long gone when a single vertically-integrated manufacturer could design and manufacture all or most of the sub-assemblies and components it needs to make a finished product. Technology is just too complicated, and it is impossible to possess all the skills that are necessary in just one place.' Mr Jeffry Sachs described Mr Trump as an 'unsophisticated' person who does not and cannot understand the complexities of manufacturing in the 21st century. Mr Trump has weaponised tariffs to 'reward' countries that have keeled over (Australia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea) and 'punish' countries that stood firm (Canada, France, United Kingdom, Brazil). India was in the 'undecided' column until Mr Trump imposed a steep tariff on steel, aluminium and copper, and a base tariff of 50 per cent on Indian goods (with some exemptions and a lagged effect) that included a penalty for buying Russian oil. India responded with 'we will take necessary measures'. India cannot, obviously, bend over. Nor does India need to be defiant. We must clearly declare our willingness to negotiate however long and painful the process may be. The laws of economics will force Mr Trump to reconsider his weaponisation of tariffs: high tariffs will increase prices of hundreds of goods that Americans consume, inflation will rise, American companies will drag their feet on re-shoring, jobs will not increase, and the US growth rate will inevitably slow down. The mid-term elections in 2026 may check the hubris of Mr Trump. Meanwhile, India cannot be a lazy exporter content with limited export products and few export markets. We must scrap the creeping controls on exporters. We must enlarge our basket of products. We must actively look for new markets that can absorb up to USD 45 billion of products (the value of goods we exported to the US in 2024-25). We must liberalise the rules for foreign direct investments. In the short term, we must offer incentives for exporters. We may consider adjusting the exchange rate to compensate the exporters although it will increase the cost of imports. All unnecessary imports could be temporarily curbed. The first lesson in foreign relations is, if one bends, kneels and crawls, one is bound to be kicked to the ground. Mr Modi forgot this lesson in his dosti with Mr Trump. Thankfully, there are signs of resistance. India must let America know that it will stand firm, defend its interests, be open to fair trade, and ready to negotiate and conclude agreements, however difficult the process may be.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Trump's tech shift opens the way for India to do a UPI on AI
TIL Creatives President Trump In the cacophony created by tariffs and Trump, a singular announcement by the US did not get even a fraction of the attention it deserves. The advance warning was in January, when Donald Trump penned his illegible scrawl on Executive Order 14179— Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI, which overturned Joe Biden's cautious AI months later on July 23, he followed it up with the main course by unveiling the AI Action Plan that outlined over 90 policy actions, heralding a no holds barred, full-throttle embrace of AI adventurism. It is a vision that prioritises computing power, private-sector leadership, and geopolitical dominance over the previous focus on ethical risks, AI safety, and algorithmic one fell stroke, the largest AI superpower has pivoted from caution to acceleration, replacing Biden-era guardrails with an innovation-first rests on three pillars: accelerating innovation, largely through deregulation; building national infrastructure, by streamlining permissions for data centres and AI research; and projecting US tech power globally, through export promotion and tighter control on announcement was accompanied by three executive orders. One of them was against 'woke AI', making the battle explicitly cultural; while the other slashed data centre red tape; and the third boosted exports of the American AI stack globally, pointing towards a strategy to create a global standard. The explosion of generative AI and ChatGPT had sparked a holy war between AI Boomers, who wanted unfettered expansion of AI, and the Doomers, who urged a careful, slower approach. With this order, it seems the former has scored a decisive this preference for breakneck speed has left many wondering: Where are the brakes? Even as there is something to be said for quickly building a technology which could have massive benefits for humanity across healthcare, education and climate, there is lots to worry about Noah Harari recently spoke about the trust paradox, where the AI superpowers do not trust one another and are racing to develop a powerful super intelligence before the other does, but are good to trust the AI the near term, this US move shifts AI's focus from how it affects society and humanity, to how it can dominate markets, create shareholder value, and pit one nation against is an explicit political aim to create bias, with its 'ideological neutrality' principle, and the US states are disincentivised to create their own guardrails with the threat to hold fast and breaking things is back in AI Action Plan is a tectonic event, and its reverberations will be spread from its Washington epicentre not only to Silicon Valley, but beyond to the rest of the world. The implications for India will be particularly interesting, not only as an emerging AI power but as a Global South leader, and the host of the next big global AI gathering – the AI Impact Summit in February 2026. These new policies might turbocharge Big TechAI development and their stock prices and accelerate startup and venture activity along with unbridled AI infrastructure the absence of regulatory guardrails could also expose society to increased misinformation, algorithmic harms and uncheckedcommercial surveillance. There is a very real risk that this economic acceleration could outpace ethical oversight, inviting public would also put the spotlight on Europe. There will be pressure on regulators to loosen up, with European startups threatening to decamp to the US. But then this is also a real, long-term opportunity for the EU to be the custodian of 'trustworthy AI'. China and its AI companies could be winners here. Countering the US' unilateral stance, China has started taking the position of AI inclusivity, by pushing open source AI models and announcing a global Shanghai Initiative to form a World AI Cooperation Organisation. DeepSeek and other models have already demonOrganisation. DeepSeek a models ready demonstrated that it is catching up on AI leadership with the US, and its open source, inclusive stance could win over more allies. However, the statist, centralised control exerted by the Chinese Communist Party, with a focus on surveillance and control will be a deterrent for many. For the rest of the world, particularly in the Global South, this divergence presents a dilemma on who to follow. It is here that there is a unique opportunity for India, to reject this binary choice, balance ambition with caution, and carve out a 'third way' that emphasises ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure and co-created governance. India has many advantages here: the world's largest democ- racy and a leader of the Global South, a strong tech ecosystem, and a much admired model in its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which has effectively balanced innovation and social equity. I have written about this third way, what I call coined 'JanAI', where India leads with a DPI-like initiative to make AI and its applications a public good in India. Many countries are keen to emulate the DPI initiative; they will likely flock to a similar AI initiative is also an opportune coincidence that India is hosting the AI Impact Summit in 2026, the largest such gathering of AI emerge as a third pole, however, India must clarify its own AI stance, create a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, and make AI a 'national mission' as it did with the Green Revolution, population control, and, indeed, the DPI/DPG on AI for Good and AI for All, with ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure, universal AI literacy and co-created governance with industry, academia and civil society will help it carve out this elusive 'middle path' and give it a legitimate platform to lead the rest of the technology, it is often said the US innovates, Europe regulates, China replicates, and, often, India the game has changed. Trump's AI policy may indeed propel the US into a dominant position, but there it could be at a great social cost. As AI becomes the foundational infrastructure of this century, the rules we write today will shape everything from elections to employment to existential risk. India, with its demographic scale, digital backbone and convening power in 2026, has a once-in-a-generation chance to help the world write those rules—not in Washington, Shanghai or Brussels, but in New Delhi. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of
