In… I don’t know… irony? desperate optimism?… India sends its consul general Prakash Gupta to South Dakota, a state that gave 63.43% of its 2024 vote to Mr. Tariff, to urge us to buy more Indian stuff:
“We know of certain technologies which India can bring to the region, particularly in ag tech,” Prakash Gupta said Tuesday. “We are also a very large, farmer-driven country, so I think ag tech is one area where we can contribute to South Dakota.”
Gupta is consul general of the consulate general of India in Seattle, which serves several states including Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. He is in Sioux Falls participating as a panelist at Wednesday’s Midwest Agricultural Export Summit.
…“In the ag space itself, we would like to bring in some nice Indian coffee to South Dakota,” Gupta said. “We would like to bring in some Indian mangoes” [Dan Santella, “Indian Consul General in South Dakota for Summit,” KELO-TV, 2025.08.12].
In definite irony, Trump is threatening to make South Dakotans pay twice as much in tariffs to get those Indian goods if India doesn’t stop buying Russian oil, even as Trump gets ready to fly to Anchorage to buy Putin’s snake oil.