White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday said that “Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people”. The comment was made during an interview to Fox News in which he spoke about the punitive tariffs imposed by the United States on India for purchasing Russian oil.

Navarro also described India as “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin”, a name used to describe the Russian seat of power.

It was unclear if Navarro used “Brahmin” in the context of caste or as a word used in the US’ northeastern region to refer to persons who hold a high social position, as in the term “Boston Brahmins” that describes the city’s historic upper class.

His statements came four days after the 50% tariff rate on Indian goods imported to the US took effect.

The Donald Trump administration had announced on August 6 that it would double the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for Russian oil purchases amid the Ukraine war. A 25% so-called reciprocal tariff had already taken effect.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On August 19, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also claimed that some of India’s richest families were profiteering from New Delhi buying and reselling cheap Russian oil amid the Ukraine conflict.

India fuelling ‘Russian war machine’: Navarro

Navarro claimed during the interview that New Delhi only bought “very small amounts” of oil from Moscow before Russia began its war on Ukraine.

“What happened? Well, the Russian refiners went in and got into bed with big oil India,” claimed the White House official. “Putin gives Modi a discount on the crude. They refine it and they ship it to Europe, Africa and Asia at a big premium and they make a ton of money.”

Navarro claimed that this was fuelling the “Russian war machine”.

He also described India as the “Maharaja of tariffs”, claiming that New Delhi has the highest tariffs in the world.

“They would not let us sell to them, so who gets hurt, workers in America, taxpayers in America,” said Navarro. “Ukrainians in cities are getting killed by Russian drones.”

This is not the first time Navarro has accused India of funding Russia’s war.

On August 27, he told Bloomberg that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was “Modi’s war”.

In an interview to the American news network, Navarro had said that by purchasing Russian oil “at a discount”, India was helping Russia and harming the US, which in turn has to finance Ukrainian defence.

He added that he was describing it as “Modi’s war” because “the road to peace runs, in part, through New Delhi”.

New Delhi has said that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

“We reiterate that these actions are unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,” the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson had said on August 6. “India will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.”