‘India Great Country With Good Friend At Top’: Trump’s Damage Control After ‘Hellhole’ Controversy

New York: The United States had to control damage after Donald Trump reposted a racist remark by American political commentator and radio host Michael Savage in a podcast, where he referred to India, China and other nations as “hell holes”.

The US Embassy later issued a statement saying Trump has spoken highly of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Christopher Elms, spokesperson for the US Embassy in New Delhi, conveyed the US President’s message.

“India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top,” Trump said.

Savage called for changes in the United States’ birthright citizenship law, alleging that people from India and China come to the US to “drop a baby in the ninth month”, and the law turns them into “instant” American citizens.

Trump had shared the transcript and video of Savage’s podcast ‘Savage Nation’, where the latter also slammed the US Supreme Court’s arguments on birthright citizenship.

Savage described Indian and Chinese immigrants as “gangsters with laptops” who have “stepped on our flag.”

“They’ve done more damage to this nation than all the mafia families put together. In my unhumble opinion. Gangsters with laptops. They’ve robbed us blind, treated us like second-class citizens, stepped on our flag, et cetera,” he wrote.

Savage said he was a “great supporter of Indians in India”, but changed his mind after realising that the prospect of “white men” getting jobs at a high-tech company in California is “nil”.

India’s angry reaction

Responding to the ‘hell hole’ comment, India said remarks on a social media post that referred to Indians “are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste”.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not mention Trump’s name, saying that the comments don’t reflect the reality of the India-US relationship.

“We have seen the comments, as also the subsequent statement issued by the US embassy in response. The remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste. They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.