NEW DELHI — After the new U.S. ambassador’s first day on the job in New Delhi, one thing is clear: MAGA-style diplomacy has reached India.
Ambassador Sergio Gor, a confidant of President Donald Trump, addressed State Department staff and members of the media in India’s capital on Monday in an inaugural event imbued with a familiar sense of stagecraft.
The music, curated by the ambassador himself, according to the U.S. Embassy’s spokesman Christopher Elms, bore a striking resemblance to the playlists at Trump rallies. Gor walked out of his black BMW sports utility vehicle to “Hold On, I’m Comin’” by the soul duo Sam and Dave and, after his remarks, walked off to the Village People’s “YMCA.”
As staff piled onto the steps of the U.S. Embassy in preparation for Gor’s arrival, the mission’s deputy spokesperson, John Brown, instructed them to gather behind Gor as he walked to the podium and ensure their applause could be heard.
“Act like Elvis just walked into the building,” Brown said, prompting a round of claps from members of the audience, who started to sweat as the cool January morning air gave way to the noontime heat.
While much of diplomacy is theater, the tone set by Gor on Monday could carry broader geopolitical implications, with U.S.-India ties facing their toughest test in decades. What seemed a promising relationship at the start of Trump’s second term has been complicated in recent months by a series of missteps and misunderstandings. Washington and New Delhi have found themselves at odds over the resolution of the last year’s India-Pakistan military showdown, India’s reliance on Russian oil — and trade.
Gor’s closeness to the White House — he led a Trump-focused political action committee and most recently served as Trump’s director of presidential personnel — has been touted by U.S. and Indian political analysts as potentially advantageous for the bilateral relationship. But it could also prove a challenge, some noted, particularly for Indian diplomats accustomed to a more staid and protocol-driven approach to diplomacy.
“You have access to one of the best Trump whisperers out there,” said Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “But what he’s whispering is what you might not want to hear.”
While there is much work to be done, Gor must first present his credentials to the president of India to be considered the ambassador by officials here. The U.S. State Department already recognizes Gor as ambassador, Elms said Monday.
Gor is also staying in temporary accommodations, Elms said, because the ambassador’s residence in New Delhi, known as Roosevelt House, remains under renovation as part of a wider embassy modernization effort.
In his remarks, Gor addressed the outstanding U.S.-India trade deal, which has been a central tension between the countries. Trump placed a 50 percent tariff on many Indian imports last summer — among the highest rates imposed on any U.S. trade partner — to punish the country for its purchases of Russian oil. Gor said there would be a phone call on Tuesday between Washington and New Delhi to discuss the state of negotiations.
Last week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on the “All-In” podcast that the United States and India had come close to a final deal late last year, but that those efforts collapsed because Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined to call Trump — an account Indian officials described as “not accurate.”
Gor said Trump hopes to visit India “in the next year or two.” He announced that Washington will officially invite India to join the U.S. State Department’s Pax Silica initiative, a program aimed at building a reliable supply chain of critical minerals to advance innovations in artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
Gor also tried to downplay U.S.-India tensions: “Real friends can disagree, but they always resolve their differences,” he noted.
Indian officials have lately sought to bolster their charm offensive in Washington by engaging with Fox News anchors such as Bret Baier and Maria Bartiromo, according to U.S. lobbying disclosures and social media posts by the Indian ambassador to the United States. Pakistan, New Delhi’s archrival, has been more successfulat courting the White House in recent months — particularly after its move to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Gor offers a direct political line to Trump, something Delhi has been struggling with in recent months,” said Constantino Xavier, a senior fellow for foreign policy and security studies at the Center for Social and Economic Progress in New Delhi. “The next few months will tell whether his role will help achieve a trade deal and normalize ties.”
At times, Gor has clashed with others in Trump’s orbit, most notably with billionaire and erstwhile White House ally Elon Musk. Tensions between the two men escalated in March after Musk came to believe that Gor had leaked a story about him to the New York Times.
If Gor approaches his job with flash, Vaishnav said, it could backfire because “having somebody who is going to be a larger-than-life figure as U.S. ambassador” — especially if he starts to opine on Indian domestic issues, which could be seen by New Delhi as meddling.
“The Indians have had a very kind of bureaucratic, technocratic way of negotiating,” he added, and Trump in his second term “has thrown that traditional playbook out the window.”
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