A US lobbying firm working for India’s embassy in Washington has listed a social media post by Donald Trump congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi on becoming India’s longest-serving prime minister as part of its paid work, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act disclosure cited by The Indian Express.
The filing was made by Mercury Public Affairs, which holds a $75,000-a-month retainer from the Indian embassy, roughly Rs 70 lakh. Mercury’s disclosure listed the Trump post congratulating Modi as part of the work it carried out for its Indian client. Bryan Lanza, who served as a communications director on Trump’s 2024 transition team, is associated with the firm.
A second firm retained by the embassy, SHW Partners LLC, is headed by Jason Miller, a senior aide to Trump. SHW Partners is paid $150,000 a month, about Rs 1.4 crore, and says in its own filing that it helped set up calls between New Delhi and senior US officials ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to India in May.
What the filing says Mercury did
Mercury Public Affairs’ FARA disclosure lists the Trump social media post congratulating Modi as activity performed under its Indian embassy contract. FARA filings require US firms representing foreign governments to itemise the work they carry out for that client, which is how a presidential social media post came to appear on a lobbying firm’s official paperwork in the first place.
The disclosure does not change who wrote or posted the message. Trump’s post about Modi becoming India’s longest-serving prime minister stands on its own. What the filing shows is that Mercury, paid by the Indian embassy, counted the post as part of the deliverables under its retainer.
That distinction is at the centre of why the filing drew attention at all. A social media post by a foreign leader is not, by itself, something a government pays a lobbying firm to produce. Listing it as billed work is what turned a routine diplomatic courtesy into a line item that a foreign client’s registered agent had to disclose to the US Department of Justice.
What SHW Partners says it arranged for the Rubio visit
SHW Partners LLC’s own filing describes a larger role than Mercury’s. The firm says it arranged calls between Indian officials in New Delhi and senior US officials in the run-up to Marco Rubio’s trip to India in May, and that it was involved in two Indian embassy events with Rubio on May 23 and 24.
SHW Partners is led by Jason Miller, who has worked as a senior communications adviser to Trump across multiple campaigns. At $150,000 a month, its retainer from the Indian embassy is double Mercury’s, and the firm’s own disclosure positions its work as tied directly to high-level diplomatic contact rather than a single social media post.
Rubio’s May trip to India included meetings with senior Indian officials as part of the broader US-India diplomatic calendar for the year. SHW Partners’ filing credits itself with helping set up the access around that visit, including the two embassy events on May 23 and 24, though the filing does not itemise what specific outcomes, if any, followed from the calls it says it arranged.
How much the embassy is spending on both firms
Combined, the disclosed retainers for Mercury Public Affairs and SHW Partners LLC come to about $225,000 a month, more than Rs 2.1 crore. Both figures come directly from the firms’ own FARA filings rather than from embassy statements, since US law requires the paid lobbyist, not the foreign client, to disclose the contract terms.
What Congress said about the spending
Congress Media Coordinator Harmeet Kaur criticised the spending in an on-record post on X, reported by Scroll.in. She asked what Indian taxpayers get in return for the retainers, and questioned the inclusion of what she called a “paid congratulatory social media post” from the US president among the billed work.
Kaur’s criticism frames the disclosure as a value-for-money question rather than a legal one. Nothing in the FARA filings themselves suggests the embassy’s contracts with Mercury or SHW Partners are improper; FARA exists precisely so that this kind of spending becomes public record, which is how the filing reached Indian Express and, from there, Congress’s attention.
FAQ
What is a FARA filing, and why does this disclosure exist?
The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires US firms representing foreign governments to publicly disclose their contracts and the work performed under them, which is how the Trump post came to appear on Mercury’s official paperwork.
How much is the Indian embassy paying its US lobbyists?
Disclosed retainers put combined spending on Mercury Public Affairs and SHW Partners LLC at about $225,000 a month, more than Rs 2.1 crore, according to the firms’ own FARA filings.
What to watch next
Whether the Indian embassy or New Delhi responds to Congress’s criticism, and whether future FARA filings from Mercury or SHW Partners disclose further work tied to the Rubio visit, are the two threads worth tracking as this story develops.
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