There’s a ribald urban legend about the moon landing. Supposedly, when Neil Armstrong was a boy, he overheard his neighbour Mrs. Gorsky refusing a sexual favour to her husband with the barb: “You’ll get that when the kid next door walks on the Moon.” And so, the story goes, before stepping onto the lunar surface, Armstrong told his crew mates: “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.”The legend endures not because it’s true—it isn’t—but because it’s funny. It collapses Cold War geopolitics into bedroom gossip, America’s space race into a marital spat. Which makes it the perfect metaphor for Donald Trump’s diplomacy. Because into the ruins of 25 years of US–India statecraft he has parachuted a man with a name that almost sounds like the cosmic punchline itself: Sergey Gorokhovsky.Shortened to Sergio Gor for American politics, he is at once a personnel enforcer, a DJ at Mar-a-Lago weddings, and the “snake” Elon Musk spat about online. And now, incredibly, he is the man Trump has entrusted to fix America’s most fragile great-power relationship.To see how deep the rot has gone, one only needs to glance at a video from Nagpur, Maharashtra, where protesters burned an effigy of Trump that looked more like a startled Benjamin Franklin. The point was clear: people were too fed up to even get the caricature right.
From Tashkent to the Trump Train
Born Sergey Gorokhovsky in Tashkent in 1986, Gor’s family moved through Malta before settling in the United States. At George Washington University, he immersed himself in Republican student politics, famously donning a squirrel suit to mock Obama’s ties to ACORN.He went on to work with Republican firebrands Michele Bachmann and Steve King, did time with the RNC and Fox News, and landed in Senator Rand Paul’s office. By 2013, he was Paul’s communications director and later deputy chief of staff.But by 2020, with Paul’s influence waning and Trump ascendant, Gor made the switch. He joined Trump’s re-election machine, helped manage fundraising, and became a close ally of Donald Trump Jr. Together they founded Winning Team Publishing, turning Trump’s doodles and grudges into glossy bestsellers. The “snake” was learning to coil tighter around power.
The Personnel Man
When Trump returned to the White House in 2025, Gor was rewarded with one of Washington’s most powerful unelected jobs: director of the Presidential Personnel Office.The title sounds dull; in Trump’s hands it became a guillotine. Applicants for senior jobs weren’t judged on competence but on loyalty. Candidates were grilled on whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen and where they stood on January 6. Hesitate, and you were out.Steve Bannon described Gor as one of the few with “walk-in privileges” to Trump. Matt Gaetz called him the “general manager of the government.” Translation: Sergio Gor could make or break your career.
Elon’s “Snake”
Nothing showed Gor’s clout more than his feud with Elon Musk. Musk lobbied for his friend Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator. Gor killed it by pointing out Isaacman’s Democratic donations.Musk raged on X: “Snake.” The label stuck. Washington saw confirmation that Gor was Trump’s ruthless enforcer, able to block even the world’s richest man. Musk was sidelined. The snake remained coiled in Trump’s inner circle.
The DJ Ambassador
For all his backroom power, Gor was also Trump’s party DJ. After 2020, he kept the MAGA faithful entertained at Mar-a-Lago soirées, even DJ’ing Matt Gaetz’s wedding. He could be running loyalty tests in the morning and spinning conga-line tracks at night.Maybe he even played Space Oddity for Elon Musk when the latter dropped by. Either way, the absurdity is now official: the same man who DJ’d Palm Beach parties is now America’s ambassador to India—and, bizarrely, special envoy for all of South and Central Asia.
A Relationship in Freefall
The timing could not be worse. Under Trump, US–India relations have unravelled at record speed. Two and a half decades of patient work between the world’s two biggest democracies have been undone in weeks.In early August, Trump imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Indian goods, the steepest in decades, “ostensibly” punishing India for buying Russian oil—while giving China, a far bigger customer of Moscow’s crude, endless extensions.Senior officials piled on. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused India of “profiteering.” Peter Navarro branded it a “laundromat for the Kremlin.” Vice President J.D. Vance defended the tariffs as “aggressive economic leverage” against Moscow, even if India got crushed in the process.Meanwhile, Trump was cozying up to Putin in Alaska and giving China a free pass. The hypocrisy was staggering: India was punished for buying what Europe and China were guzzling freely.In Delhi, the backlash was instant. Comparisons were made to Nixon dispatching the USS Enterprise in 1971 and Clinton slapping sanctions after Pokhran in 1998. Diplomats who had spent 25 years building trust saw it evaporate in 25 days.And yet, almost nobody in Trump’s orbit dared to push back. Former NSA John Bolton warned that Trump was wrecking the relationship — and promptly got a knock on the door from FBI agents. Nikki Haley, the lone senior Republican to break ranks, urged caution on punishing India. Her words were ignored. The MAGA machine was in no mood for nuance.
The Holbrooke Ghost
As if tariffs weren’t enough, Trump compounded the insult by naming Gor both ambassador to India and special envoy for the region. That lumps India back in with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Central Asian republics—the dreaded “hyphenation” India thought it had buried.In 2009, India forced Obama to drop Richard Holbrooke’s brief as “special envoy for India and Pakistan.” Now Trump has resurrected the ghost, with Gor wearing both hats. For New Delhi, it’s déjà vu with a MAGA twist.
Viceroy or Messenger?
Optimists strain for silver linings. Because Gor has Trump’s ear, his appointment could give India a direct channel to the Oval Office. Back-channel talks might sidestep Twitter tantrums.But the greater risk is that he arrives as a viceroy, carrying Trump’s MAGA agenda and demanding compliance. Trump himself described Gor not as a diplomat but as someone he trusts to “deliver on my agenda.” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised him as a “fearless advocate” for American interests. To Indian ears, that sounded like enforcer-speak.
India Won’t Bend
The problem is India won’t bend. It didn’t in 1971. It didn’t in 1998. It won’t in 2025. Trump’s attempt to railroad Delhi with tariffs and insults has already triggered a defensive backlash. If Gor tries to DJ MAGA politics in India the way he DJs Palm Beach parties, the result will not be conga lines but collisions.
The Quiet Burial of the Indo-Pacific
What Gor’s appointment really signals is the quiet burial of the Indo-Pacific strategy that elevated India as a cornerstone of US policy. Instead of treating India as a counterweight to China, Trump has reduced the relationship to a sideshow of his feud with Russia. Instead of building trust, he has re-hyphenated India with Pakistan. Instead of cementing 25 years of progress, he has torched it. In the end, Sergio Gor is less a diplomat than a symptom: of a White House that prizes loyalty over expertise, bluster over strategy, and conga lines over careful diplomacy.Musk’s “snake” jibe is eerily reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s old warning about Pakistan: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbour.” Either way, this Mr. Gorokhovsky is very much real—unlike Neil Armstrong’s imaginary Mr. Gorsky. The only question is whether India gets bitten, or whether it learns to charm the snake while waiting out the storm.
