NEW YORK: President Donald Trump has dragged India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi into a potential minefield of US politics by claiming that India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are “very supportive” in the context of the US elections. , where foreign participation is a sore point.
“We have great support from India, we have great support from Prime Minister Modi, and I think the people, the Indian people, would vote for Trump,” he said on Friday when asked about the American Indian vote.
A reporter referred to an orientation video “Four more years” Indian americans which was released during the Republican National Convention and was retweeted by his eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., and asked if the community would vote for him.
“Yes,” Trump said. “We had an event in Houston, as you know, and it was a fantastic event. I was invited by Prime Minister Modi, this was huge, this was where they play soccer, Houston soccer team, it was amazing. It was actually amazing. The prime minister could not have been more generous. ”
He then made the claim about the support of India and Modi, which could be controversial given the allegations of foreign interference in the November presidential election.
Democrats have said Russia backed Trump and Republicans have said China backed the Democratic Partycandidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.
The concept of the video, “Four More Years”, attributed to Al Mason, the Co-Chair of the Trump Victory Indian American Finance Committee, is subtle in using clips of Modi praising Trump at the “Howdy Modi” rally of some 50,000 American Indians. in Houston last year and Trump praising American Indians and India, and saying that America will always be a “loyal and faithful friend of the Indian people” at the “Namaste Trump” rally in Ahmedabad in February.
However, Trump’s claim at Friday’s press conference of Modi and India’s backing was more direct and implies direct support from them for Trump in the election, which could complicate relations with the Democrats.
Indian Americans have traditionally been a stronghold of the Democratic Party.
The Pew Research Center has found that 65 percent of Indian Americans are either Democrats or party-leaning.
According to Karthick Ramakrishnan, director of Asian American Pacific islander According to data produced by political research on those communities, 77 percent of American Indians voted for Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton and only 16 percent for Trump in the 2016 election.
But Ramakrishnan told a National Public Radio interviewer in February: “My hunch is that there is probably some movement toward President Trump, but still overwhelming support for the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates as opposed to President Trump.”
American Indian voters could play a role in battlefield states, swing states where neither party has an overwhelming majority and could go either way.
The journalist asked Trump if his eldest son and daughter Ivanka Trump would campaign for him among Indian-Americans in the battlefield states this year.
Trump replied: “They are very good young people. And I know that their relationship with India is very good and also mine. And Prime Minister Modi is a friend of mine and he has done a very good job. Not easy, not easy, but he is doing a very good job. ”
He added: “They think a lot about India and so do I, and I think a lot about their prime minister.”
He said: “What we saw (during the visit to India in February), the people are amazing. It is really an amazing place and an amazing country. And it is definitely great, it is definitely great. But you have a great leader and he is a great person.”
While defending his response to the Covid-19 pandemic, he said that India has “done a good job” in testing for the disease, carrying out the second most tests in the world, behind the United States.
In 2016, the Trump campaign made special efforts to reach Hindu voters. Community and religious appeals are legal in the United States and both parties use them, although it was the first time that a presidential candidate campaigned for Hindu votes.
Trump addressed a rally organized by the Hindu Republican Coalition and his son Eric visited a Hindu temple in Florida.
A video of Trump welcoming a saree-clad Indian software developer to the “great family of American citizens” during a citizenship ceremony at the White House was shown at the Republican Convention last month to show his support for immigrants. legal.
However, in his speech to the convention, he highlighted the action against the employment of H1-B workers in a government-owned energy conglomerate. Indians get the majority of H1-B visas, granted to professionals and skilled workers, and efforts to reduce them are criticized by India.
The convention also showed a video in which Trump holds as a “hostage” an American missionary captured by his own admission to India committing currency violations. Although he received due process with the Indian judiciary and was released, Trump presented him alongside victims from countries like Iran and Syria.
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