It is highly debatable whether a strategy of US primacy — meaning, a global power arrangement where the United States is not just one of a number of similarly powerful nations, but by far the most powerful and influential — is even in the country’s best interests. Pursuit of this goal has been devastating for American communities over the past few decades, from free trade deals that hollowed out local industry to endless wars that sent young Americans home in planes full of body bags.

But winning a permanent US-dominated future is what Donald Trump thinks is in the best interests of the United States. And so far, he is doing everything possible to undermine his own goal.

Just look at the state of US relations with India, a key US partner and a lynchpin of Washington’s wider strategy to counter a rising China. India is emerging as a major global player and economic powerhouse that, crucially, has spent the past few years at a low point in its relations with China.