Few leaders are as good at marketing themselves as India’s Narendra Modi. Since his election as Prime Minister in 2014, he has projected himself as the builder of a stronger and more assertive India, claimed credit for its robust economic growth, and has blamed his predecessors when things went wrong. A generation of voters believe India’s growing stature on the world stage is because of him.

But then comes Donald Trump, the disruptor par excellence , who on Wednesday threatened staggering 50% tariffs on imports from the world’s fourth largest economy. India now faces among the steepest U.S. levies of any nation.

The announcement is a remarkable development considering the past bonhomie between the two men. Modi and Trump are populists with ideological similarities and had

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