Trump and Yunus have a bitter past, tense future. Unless doormat diplomacy becomes a thing

Unless doormat diplomacy becomes a thing, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus and United States President-elect Donald Trump won’t become best friends anytime soon. If reports coming out of Bangladesh are to be believed, the American flag has been merged with the Israeli one to make a doormat outside the Dhaka University’s student-teacher centre as a form of protest. The ‘protest’ is ostensibly led by students, for whom the act is just a part of a continuing agitation in the country over the Israeli offensive in Gaza. In October 2024, students of Jagannath University in Dhaka called for a boycott of all Israeli products.

But there is a bigger issue over which Yunus and Trump may not see eye to eye. In his Diwali message, Trump said he strongly condemns “the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos”. Taking to social media platform X, Trump tweeted on 31 October: “It would have never happened on my watch. Kamala and Joe have ignored Hindus across the world and in America.”

“It does not help matters that Trump won the election and promptly selected Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard embraces her Hindu identity, is a Lord Krishna devotee and was present at a celebration of ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. ISKON temples have been attacked in Bangladesh and radicals want the organisation banned in the country and the Yunus administration has been a mute spectator so far,” he said.

A sedition case was recently filed against two ISKON members for allegedly hoisting a saffron flag over Bangladesh’s national flag at Chittagong on 25 October.

Beyond the issue of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, Trump and Yunus have a more personal problem. One that has to do with the two men’s perception of each other and their politics.

Also read: 100 days of Yunus govt in Bangladesh—nepotism, chaos, U-turns

Past continuous, future tense

Congratulating Trump after his election victory on 6 November, Yunus wrote him a letter saying he looks forward to working together, “to further strengthen the bilateral partnership with the US and foster sustainable development”. “I firmly believe that the possibilities are endless as our two friendly nations work towards exploring newer avenues of partnership,” Yunus wrote.

But it is Yunus’ past comments on Trump that resurfaced on social media and became the subject of speculation over the Bangladesh-US relationship under the new heads of state. When Trump won the election for the first time in 2016, Yunus had said that the victory shattered him so much that he could barely speak or move around. He called the victory “a solar eclipse” and Trump’s term as “black days”.

“We must not allow this lapse into depression, we will overcome these dark clouds. HEC Paris is so important in this fightback, it has been supporting our efforts for years, and these two days here will inspire us again,” Yunus had said.

Yunus allegedly made a big donation to the Clinton Foundation ahead of Trump’s then-rival Hillary Clinton’s bid for US presidency. “Grameen America, the (Yunus’s Grameen Bank) bank’s nonprofit US flagship, which Yunus chaired, gave between $100,000 and $250,000 to the foundation. Another Grameen arm chaired by Yunus, Grameen Research, had donated between $25,000 and $50,000,” a report said.

On his part, Trump had reportedly said: “Where is the micro-finance guy from Dhaka…I heard he donated to see me lose.”

But beyond the personal animosity, what may come between Trump and Yunus is the idea that there was an alleged US hand behind the mass movement that toppled Hasina and brought Yunus to power.

Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University Jeffrey D Sachs wrote Hasina had been pursuing a foreign policy of neutrality, “including constructive relations not only with the US but also with China and Russia, much to the deep consternation of the US government”. And this, Sachs suggested, may have led to her ouster with tacit support from the US, which is “by far the world’s leading practitioner of regime-change operations”.

Dhaka-based political journalist Sahidul Hasan Khokon told ThePrint if there was a “regime change operation” by the US, it was Yunus who benefitted from it. “He has been really thick with both the Biden administration and the Clintons. There was pressure on Hasina to stop court cases against Yunus regarding charges of tax fraud and money laundering.”

In 2023, Hillary Clinton had come out in open support of Yunus, urging the international community to wage a campaign for an “end to his persecution” as the Hasina government initiated action against him for allegedly violating financial and labour laws.

Khokon said that as a Washington outsider with an “America First” policy, Trump may have little interest in undertaking regime changes in this part of the world. “That, along with his past animosity with Yunus and his statement about Bangladeshi Hindus, may become major stumbling blocks in US-Bangladesh relationship going forward,” he said.

Using the American flag as a doormat won’t help either.

Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)