Topline<\/p>\n
A post reshared by President Donald Trump on Truth Social earlier this week drew political outrage in India for calling the country a \u201chellhole on the planet,\u201d with government officials criticizing the remarks as \u201cinappropriate,\u201d which could impact the president\u2019s cordial ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. <\/p>\n
President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet in the Oval Office at the White House.<\/p>\n
Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
In a post on Truth Social<\/a> on Wednesday evening, Trump shared a four-page transcript of remarks made by conservative podcaster Michael Savage criticizing birthright citizenship, something the president is attempting to restrict.<\/p>\n In the transcript, Savage rails against birthright citizenship, saying: \u201cA baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201chellhole\u201d remark was quickly picked up by the Indian media and drew immediate condemnation from several opposition leaders, who questioned Modi\u2019s silence on the matter.<\/p>\n Mallikarjun Kharge, president of India\u2019s principal opposition Congress Party, took a swipe at both Trump and Modi, tweeting<\/a>: \u201cModi ji\u2019s dear friend, \u2018Namaste Trump\u2019 has shared a note abusing India and using an extremely disparaging term.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahua Moitra, an opposition lawmaker<\/a> from West Bengal\u2014where Modi is campaigning for a key regional election\u2014tweeted at the prime minister saying his friend Trump \u201cjust called India a \u2018hell hole\u2019 and all Indians \u2018gangsters with laptops\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n How Has The Indian Foreign Ministry Reacted?<\/p>\n During a weekly press conference on Wednesday, a spokesperson for India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs initially gave a muted response<\/a> when asked about the post: \u201cWe have seen some reports. That is where I leave it.\u201d However, as outrage and criticism grew, the ministry issued a stronger rebuke<\/a>: \u201cThe 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.\u201d The U.S. Embassy in India also shared a statement with several outlets: \u201cThe president has said \u2018India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, the X accounts operated by Iranian embassies around the world have made several posts mocking America and Trump with memes and AI-generated clips. The Iranian consulate in Hyderabad chimed in on the controversy, tweeting<\/a>: \u201cChina and India are the cradles of Civilization. In fact, the hellhole is where its war-criminal president threatened to decimate the civilization in Iran.\u201d The official account of the Iranian consulate in Mumbai tweeted<\/a> a video showing off tourist spots in the city and its neighboring areas, and wrote: \u201cMaybe someone should book a one-way cultural detox for Mr. Trump, it might just reduce the random bakwaas [nonsense].\u201d <\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n The criticism directed at Modi and his lack of response to the post could draw further political scrutiny in India over the prime minister’s cordial ties with Trump. Modi has referred to Trump as his \u201cdear friend<\/a>,\u201d while Trump has described the Indian Prime Minister as \u201cone of my greatest<\/a> friends\u201d. The cordial ties stretch back to Trump\u2019s first term, and in 2020 Modi held an event at the country\u2019s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, with more than 100,000 attendees, titled \u201cNamaste Trump\u201d when the president traveled to India. The close ties between the two countries have frayed since Trump\u2019s return to office after he slapped India with 50% tariff\u2014which included a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil. In February, Trump announced<\/a> a lowered tariff rate of 18% for India and claimed the two sides had struck a trade deal that would see India open its markets to U.S. energy, technology, agricultural, coal and other goods. While the deal has not been finalized, opposition leaders have used it to attack Modi, accusing him of folding to Trump and opening India\u2019s heavily protected agricultural sector.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline A post reshared by President Donald Trump on Truth Social earlier this week drew political outrage in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8181,38,8,12332,12333,1467,9,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-20422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-birthright-citizenship","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-india-hellhole-controversy","12":"tag-india-us-ties","13":"tag-narendra-modi","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116461500010502276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}