WASHINGTON: Republican White House candidate Donald Trump praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “total killer” Wednesday as he discussed foreign leaders during a media blitz for the final stretch of the election campaign.
“He’s great. He’s a friend of mine,” Trump told a podcast with millions of subscribers hosted by stand-up comedian Andrew Schultz. “On the outside he looks like he’s your father. He’s the nicest. Total killer.”
Trump and Hindu-nationalist Modi enjoy warm relations and the former US president has a sizable following among right-wing groups in India, who see him as a kindred spirit aligned with their hostility towards Muslims.
The pair heaped praise on each other in a joint appearance at a stadium in Houston in 2019, touting a close, personal alliance in front of tens of thousands of Indian-Americans.
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Some 50,000 people attended the event – dubbed, with a Texan twang, “Howdy, Modi!” – and it was billed as the largest gathering ever by a foreign leader other than the pope in the United States.
Modi hosted Trump at an even bigger US-style rally in his home state of Gujarat during Trump’s last year in office, before an estimated 100,000 supporters.
Trump – who, like Modi, has been accused of discriminating against Muslims – has stood by the Indian leader through multiple controversies, including the revocation of autonomy for Muslim-majority Kashmir.
“We had a couple of occasions where somebody was threatening India,” Trump told Schultz. “I said, ‘Let me help. I’m very good with those people. Let me help.’”
Apparently mimicking Modi’s reply, Trump then said: “I will do it, I will do it, and I will do anything necessary. We’ve defeated them for hundreds of years.”
“He was talking about a certain country. You can probably guess,” said Trump.
He did not name the nation, although India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and countless border conflicts since they were partitioned out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
Polling for the US election shows the Republican billionaire neck and neck with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian heritage, with just four weeks left before Americans pick their next leader.
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