August 11, 2025 | 09:17 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - United States President Donald Trump has sparked public outrage in India after imposing a 50 percent import tariff on goods originating from the country.
According to a report by India Today, this policy was introduced in two phases as a response to India’s decision to continue purchasing Russian oil at discounted prices. The move has unsettled Indian exporters and harmed trade relations with the US.
Trump, who was previously praised for his pro-India stance, is now facing widespread negative reactions. Many social media users are demanding strong retaliation, including a boycott of American companies.
Social Media Flooded with Calls for Boycott
An analysis by the OSINT team at India Today shows a sharp increase in anti-Trump sentiment on platform X. Between August 1 and 7, there were over 47,000 posts containing keywords such as ‘ban’ and ‘boycott’ related to US brands. Coca-Cola was the most targeted with 10,000 posts, followed by Facebook with 9,100, Starbucks with 5,200, KFC with 5,000, and Pizza Hut with 2,700.
During the same period, 10,000 posts included phrases like ‘Boycott US’ and ‘Boycott America’ from X users in India. Hashtags such as #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice and ‘Arrest Trump’ appeared in thousands of posts. Some users also used insults, reflecting a global trend with over 284,000 similar posts worldwide in the past seven days.
Major Market for US Brands
As reported by TRT Global, India, the world’s most populous country, is an important market for US brands. Meta’s WhatsApp has its largest user base in India, while Domino’s Pizza has more outlets there than anywhere else.
Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola are popular on store shelves, and the launch of Apple or Starbucks locations often draws long queues. Although sales have not declined yet, calls to buy local products and reject US brands are growing louder on social media and in public forums.
Support Local Products Movement
Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of Wow Skin Science, posted a video on LinkedIn urging people to support local farmers and startups. He wants Indian-made products to become globally popular, similar to South Korea’s success with food and beauty items.
“We line up for products from thousands of miles away. We take pride in spending money on brands that are not ours, while local makers struggle to get noticed in their own country,” he said.
Rahm Shastry, CEO of DriveU, also said India needs its own social media platforms like China has.
“India must have its own versions of Twitter, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook like China does,” Shastry said.
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