News Brief
Kuldeep Negi
Oct 10, 2024, 09:05 AM | Updated Oct 12, 2024, 11:44 PM IST
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Former US president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to him as his "friend" and describing him as the "nicest human being."
During an appearance on the Flagrant podcast, Trump shared his views on various world leaders.
"Modi (India), he's a friend of mine and also the nicest human being. Before him being appointed as the Prime Minister, India was very unstable. On the outside, he looks like he's your father. He is the nicest and a total killer," he said, India Today reported.
In the same podcast, Trump reminisced about the famous "Howdy, Modi" event, held in Houston, Texas, in September 2019.
The event featured a large crowd of Indian-Americans gathered at Houston’s NRG Stadium to hear Prime Minister Modi speak.
"They did a thing called Howdy, Modi in Houston, Texas. It was me and him and it was beautiful. It was a gathering of around 80,000 people and it felt like crazy. We were walking about. Today, maybe I won't be able to do something like that," he said.
Trump also mentioned his strong relationship with Modi, recalling a conversation which apparently involved India-Pakistan tensions.
Without directly naming Pakistan, Trump said, "On a couple of occasions, somebody was threatening India, and I told Modi, let me help as I am very good at it. To which he (Modi) aggressively responded, 'I will handle it and would do anything necessary. We have defeated them for hundreds of years.' And I said, whoa, what just happened there".
The bond between Modi and Trump has grown over the years, with Modi calling Trump a "true friend," and Trump consistently praising Modi’s leadership and personality.
As President, Trump visited India for the "Namaste Trump" event in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where over 100,000 people gathered, making it the largest rally by a US President outside America.
Recently, Donald Trump called PM Modi a 'fantastic person' and said he would meet the Prime Minister during his Quad Summit visit, but the meeting did not take place.
Kuldeep is Senior Editor (Newsroom) at Swarajya. He tweets at @kaydnegi.