New Delhi: The Indian Embassy in Washington has extended the contract of SHW Partners LLC, the lobbying firm headed by US President Donald Trump’s ally Jason Miller, for another year till April 2027.
Miller was quickly snapped up by the Indian mission in Washington, days after the Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025. The new contract mirrors the same one extended to SHW last year, and is worth $1.8 million over its duration. The embassy will be paying Miller’s firm $150,000 per month till 23 April, 2027.
“SHW Partner’s representation will encompass providing strategic counsel, tactical planning, and government relations assistance on policy matters before the US Government, the US Congress, state governments, academic institutions, think tanks, and any other relevant stakeholders as required,” a disclosure statement submitted by SHW to the US Department of Justice said.
The disclosure statement was submitted to the US government on 17 June, and was made publicly available recently. The lobbying firm was founded by Miller, a long-time political communications strategist who worked on Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Between November 2025 and April 2026, Miller lobbied heavily for the India-US trade deal. India ramped up its lobbying efforts in the US in the last year, as ties hit a rough patch with differences over trade and the role Trump played in ending the 87-hour conflict between New Delhi and Islamabad.
A review of the disclosures indicate that Miller on the days of 1 and 2 February disclosed at least eight calls to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Susie Wiles, Trump’s Chief of Staff.
Miller spoke with Greer at least 13 times between November 2025 and April 2026. Greer is the main negotiator for the interim trade deal with India, and most recently travelled to New Delhi at the end of June.
The lobbyist for India spoke to Bessent 12 times during the same time period, and Lutnick thrice. He coordinated with Wiles’ office ahead of the announcement of the successful negotiations between India and the US on 2 February for an interim trade deal.
Trump and Modi spoke on 2 February before making the announcement. However, the deal has remained in cold storage until the US is able to build its tariff architecture, after its Supreme Court struck down the earlier duties imposed on imports by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
In March and April, Miller was in touch with Francis Brooke, the Acting Assistant Secretary of International Affairs in the Treasury Department apart from remaining in touch with Greer. Miller also met with US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, thrice between November and December 2025.
Gor was the then ambassador-designate, before formally taking over his post in New Delhi in January 2026. Miller attended a reception hosted by Gor, while also meeting with Dan Driscoll, the powerful US Secretary of the Army. Driscoll made his maiden visit to New Delhi in January 2026.
India has sought to engage more intensively with lobbyists in the last year, since Trump assumed the presidency in January 2025. India-US ties have seen a soft thaw, with President Trump and Prime Minister Modi holding a bilateral meeting on the margins of the G7 summit in France last month.
Miller is considered a close Trump ally. He worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign for the White House as a senior communications adviser and was slated to become the White House Communications Director in 2017, but withdrew following allegations of an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer. Eight years later, Miller worked on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign before founding SHW.
Lobbying is legal in the US, as long as all agents are registered under FARA—Foreign Agents Registration Act—and file disclosures as required by law. India has hired a number of firms through history, but in the months after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor, it expanded its lobbying efforts, hiring more firms including Mercury Public Affairs last August.
Mercury Public Affairs was co-chaired by Susie Wiles, the incumbent Chief of Staff for Trump, from 2022 till 2024.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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