Trump: Breaking rules, making history

On April 25, 2026, an abortive third attempt on President Donald John Trump’s life was made at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association’s Dinner in the glittering Ballroom of the iconic wing-shaped Washington Hilton Hotel by a 31-year-old intruder, Cole Tomas Allen, hailing from Torrance, California. Allen had surreptitiously registered as a guest in the hotel and stealthily managed to descend ten flights of stairs and fully sprint precariously close to the meticulously secured main magnetometer screening area, armed to the teeth with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives concealed adroitly in a duffel bag. Trump and other dignitaries were whisked away to safety by the US Secret Service with amazing promptitude and alacrity. Allen was deftly apprehended and arrested by US Secret Service agents, but not before he had shot a US Secret Service Agent who was miraculously saved by a whisker, thanks to his efficacious ballistic protective vest. In a hastily convened press conference at the White House, a visibly emotional Trump, still attired in his formal black tuxedo, described the “would be assassin” as a “lone wolf” and a “very sick person” and went on to assert, “And this was an event dedicated to freedom of speech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press. And in a certain way, it did because the fact that they just unified, I saw a room that was just totally unified.” The bizarre incident is the latest in an alarming spike in global political violence in recent years and comes amid escalating hate, extremism and polarisation. US politicians from across the aisle and world leaders have expressed their condemnation in one voice. Our Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi lost no time in expressing his traditional solidarity with Trump, “Relieved to learn that President Trump, the First Lady and Vice President are safe and unharmed following the recent security incident at a Washington DC hotel. I extend my best wishes for their continued safety and well-being. Violence has no place in a democracy and must be unequivocally condemned.” On April 27th, 2026, a handcuffed, shaken Allen was produced in the Washington Federal Court and charged by the US Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh with attempting to assassinate the US President. Consequently, Allen faces the caliginous prospect of a life sentence if convicted! The matter now rests with the Gujarat-born Judge Moxila A Upadhyaya. The incident has taken a dramatic turn after Laura Elizabeth Loomer, the firebrand American far-right political activist and conspiracy theorist, candidly claimed that Allen was a registered Democrat and a Kamala Harris donor. In a roughly 20-minute interview hosted by CBS’s flagship anchor Norah O’Donnell, Trump, too, framed Democrats as the cause of the political violence aimed at him. Not to be outdone, the princess-like White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (she is ready to have her second baby girl “any minute”!) blamed the rhetoric from prominent Democrats, “This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators, by elected members of the Democrat party and even some in the media.” All this and more have sparked a major political firestorm. 

Now that Trump has had a close shave and the immediate threat to his life has been neutralised forthwith by the grace of Lord Almighty, it will be well worth it incisively retracing his incredible life journey from the glamorous New York real estate Moghul to the mighty, maverick President of the United States. Trump was born literally with a platinum spoon at 10:54 am at the famed Jamaica Hospital ensconced in the Queens borough of New York City on June 14th, 1946 on the very same day Bernard Baruch, the prodigious Jewish American financier and statesman, presented the pioneering “Baruch Plan” aimed at establishing international control over nuclear weapons and technology to prevent nuclear proliferation to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. His father, Frederick Christ Trump, born to German immigrant parents from Kallstadt, Bavaria, was a wealthy real estate developer and businessman, and his Scottish-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was a well-known philanthropist and socialite. Trump, the fourth of five children, initially attended the co-educational private Kew-Forest School in the neighbourhood of Forest Hills in Queens. Thereafter, his father enrolled him in the New York Military Academy, a private, college-preparatory, boarding school in Cornwall, New York. He spent his first two years of college at New York City’s top-ranked private Jesuit research Fordham University, before completing his education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce (known now as the Wharton School) in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. After graduation, Trump returned to New York City and commenced working for his father’s flourishing real estate business. In 1971, he became the President of a conglomerate of family-owned businesses, which he later named the Trump Organization and began acquiring and building skyscrapers, hotels, golf courses and casinos all over the United States. He also purchased sports teams, published books and served as the producer and host of a reality TV show called The Apprentice. He married his third wife Melania Knauss, the stunning Slovenian-born fashion model, on January 22nd, 2005, at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a magical reception at his sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate.

On June 16th, 2015, Trump announced he was running for President as a Republican nominee. Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election was the front-runner, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, the former Secretary of State and wife of the 42nd US President, William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton. After winning the election in 2026, Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20th, 2017 and vowed to follow his campaign slogan and achieve his long-cherished dream to “Make America Great Again”. 

On 15th November, 2022, Trump officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 election. After Joseph Robinette “Joe” Biden Jr opted out of the Presidential race, the former Vice President Kamala Devi Harris became the official Democratic nominee for the White House. Trump vanquished Harris on November 6th, 2024 and succeeded in becoming the first person to win a nonconsecutive term since President Stephen Grover Cleveland in 1892. On a freezing afternoon of 20th January, 2025, Trump was sworn in for a second term as the 47th President of the United States within the majestic confines of the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, with his First Lady, Melania, proudly holding a pair of Bibles viz. The “Trump Bible” (the 1953 edition of the King James version presented to Trump by his mother in 1955!) and the “Lincoln Bible” (that was used by President Abraham Lincoln, the towering sixteenth President of the United States, at his inauguration on March 7th,1861). In his strikingly flamboyant inauguration speech, Trump addressed his fellow Americans in ringing tones:

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success…Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear.  But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason.  I was saved by God to make America great again…Today is Martin Luther King Day…We will make his dream come true. The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before.  America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world…We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God…We will be prosperous, we will be proud, we will be strong, and we will win like never before. We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail.  From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign, and independent nation. We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun.”

Immediately after the inauguration, Trump proudly reinstated the bronze bust of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (whose American mother Jeanette Jerome was born in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, the most populous borough of New York City!) chiselled in 1947 by the legendary American-British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein in the Oval Office, a notable move that highlighted his indefatigable admiration for the titanic British wartime leader who had famously quipped to the US Congress on December 26th, 1941, “I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way round, I might have got here on my own”.

Our Prime Minister, Narendra Damodardas Modi, lost no time in expressing his traditional solidarity with Trump: “Relieved to learn that President Trump, the First Lady, and the Vice President are safe and unharmed following the recent security incident at a Washington, DC, hotel.”

The United States today faces an unprecedented fiscal challenge, with national debt crossing roughly $39-40 trillion, a level widely described as unsustainable by economists. While this debt crunch is indeed the cumulative result of multiple administrations over decades, the urgency to address it has intensified under Trump. However, the strategy being pursued is complex, controversial, and often appears disconnected from the avowed goal of debt reduction.

One key pillar of Trump’s approach on the economic plane has been his aggressive tariff policies. The idea is to generate revenue from imports and reduce dependence on foreign goods. While tariffs have significantly increased government coffers, they still account for only a minuscule fraction of total federal revenues and are far from sufficient to meaningfully reduce the national debt. Moreover, tariffs often act as indirect taxes on consumers, raising domestic prices and risking retaliatory trade wars that have the potentiality of hurting exports and economic growth.

Simultaneously, geopolitical actions-particularly in the aftermath of the ongoing raging conflict with Iran-have added further strain. Military operations are extremely costly, with tens of billions of dollars already spent and the projections of much higher future expenditures. Rather than reducing debt, such conflicts tend to expand deficits, especially when coupled with increased defence budgets.

Trump’s stance on NATO also fits into this broader framework. By pressuring allies to contribute more financially and militarily, the administration aims to reduce the American burden in global security. While this could theoretically lower long-term expenditures, it has strained alliances and created uncertainty in the realm of global geopolitics. In essence, while these policies-tariffs, military actions, and alliance restructuring-can be interpreted as attempts to rebalance America’s economic and strategic position, they do not yet provide a coherent or sufficient solution to the debt crisis. In fact, many analysts argue that current actions may be exacerbating the very problems they aim to solve.

However, Trump has an indefinable affection and admiration for India and shares a very special fraternal relationship with Modi. On April 23rd, 2026, Trump praised India in effusive terms and reiterated, “India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top”. The genesis of Modi’s personal friendship with Trump took off on 26th June, 2017, when Modi met the newly elected Trump in the course of his fifth official visit to the United States as Prime Minister. On September 22nd, 2019, Modi, in the course of his sixth visit, made a Bollywood-style appearance at the famed Houston NRG stadium at a truly historic “Howdy, Modi: Shared Dreams, Bright Futures” event. Trump landed in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on February 24th, 2020, to a red-carpet welcome for his first official visit to India and Modi invited him to the newly constructed Motera Cricket Stadium (now known as the Narendra Modi Stadium) to a spectacular event, showcased as “Namaste Trump”, graced by over 100,000 ecstatic, wildly cheering Indians. Modi’s seventh visit, following Trump’s second term in office, was marked by Trump graciously hosting Modi for an Official Working meeting in the White House on February 13th, 2025. Four days later, Trump warmly wished Modi on the eve of his diamond birthday on September 17th, 2025. In the wake of the raging conflict in West Asia, Modi, as a true “foul weather” friend of Trump, has unobtrusively impressed upon Trump that peace was the imperative need of the hour reverberating Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless philosophy of peace, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.” Significantly, Trump had a 90-minute-long telephonic dialogue with Putin traversing a wide range of global flashpoints including the Iran war, the Ukraine conflict and the recent shooting in Washington, virtually reigniting the 15th August, 2025 Alaska flame! In his commentary, the senior Russian diplomat Yuri Viktorovich Ushakov, Putin’s Aide on foreign policy issues and the former Russian Ambassador to the US, lauded the telephonic tête-à-tête as “friendly and businesslike” and expressed that Putin had strongly condemned the assassination attempt against Trump, stressing that any form of politically motivated violence was unacceptable.

Even though Modi told Trump in a touching telephonic conversation that lasted for nearly 40 minutes on April 14th, 2026 that the “people of India love you”, Trump has multifarious antagonists, detractors, baiters and denigrators in India and some prominent Indian TV channels and self-styled Indian political commentators, reputed to have close connections with giant corporate houses and the powers that be in India, have maliciously unleashed a blistering campaign of vilification and calumny against Trump with impunity to subserve the narrow vested interests of venturous political parties and nations inimical to Trump and Uncle Sam. Such unscrupulous persons and TV channels will undoubtedly cast a dark and foreboding shadow on the warm and cordial relations that exist between India and the United States!

The author is an internationally reputed senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts and Tribunals in India. He is an avid debater, public speaker, writer, broadcaster, telecaster, artist, painter, sculptor, music critic and filmmaker; Views presented are personal.