‘MODI STUMPED BY TRUMP’S IGNORANCE’

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump once left Prime Minister Narendra Modi stumped after he told the PM that India and China didn’t share a border, revealing the US President’s “woefully” poor knowledge of geography, according to a new book by two Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalists. The Indian government did not confirm nor deny the development.

WASHINGTON/ NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump has called himself a “stable genius” but a book due for release next week questions that claim citing, among other instances, the time he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India and China do not share a border.

“It’s not like you’ve got China on your border,” Trump had told

Modi, according to a news report about the book A Very Stable Genius published by The Washington Post.

“Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise,” authors Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker wrote. “Modi’s expression gradually shifted, from shock and concern to resignation... The Indian PM probably left that meeting and said, ‘This is not a serious man. I cannot count on this man as a partner.’”

The book suggests that the

Indians took a “step back” in their relations with the US as a result.

It is not clear from the report which Trump-modi meeting is being referred to. Modi and Trump have met multiple times over the last three years. Trump and Modi call each other friends and jointly addressed the Howdymodi outreach to the Indian diaspora last September.

India’s ministry of external affairs neither confirmed nor denied the report.