Trump’s India trip brings promise of biggest rally yet
United States President Donald Trump will almost certainly not complete a new Us-india trade deal during his two-day visit to the world’s most populous democracy this week. The trophy agreement has been repeatedly postponed amid trade tensions.
Instead, the centrepiece of Trump’s brief visit is a massive rally in his honour that his host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has billed as ‘‘Namaste Trump’’.
The greeting loosely translates from Sanskrit as ‘‘I bow to you’’ – which may appeal to Trump as much as the idea that the gathering in Ahmedabad is expected to fill the world’s largest cricket stadium. Never mind that its capacity is 120,000, not ‘‘millions’’, as Trump has said.
‘‘We’re not treated very well by India, but I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot,’’ Trump said last week when asked about the dwindling likelihood that the trade pact would be ready.
‘‘And he told me we’ll have 7 million people between the airport and the event. And the stadium, I understand, is sort of semi-under construction, but it’s going to be the largest stadium in the world. So it’s going to be very exciting.’’
By the time Trump spoke at a rally in Colorado on Friday, the promised crowd had grown. ‘‘I hear they are going to have 10 million people,’’ he said. The population of Ahmedabad, the largest city in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, is roughly 5.5 million.
Whatever the numbers, Trump will draw a crowd that may be his largest ever. In addition to bragging rights, he hopes that popularity abroad can translate to votes back home.
Although the Indian-american diaspora of roughly 4.5 million people tends to vote Democratic, Trump has argued that his pro-business agenda and entrepreneurial background should be a draw.
Many Indian-americans live in the solidly blue states of California and New York, but there are also significant voting populations in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, all states Trump thinks he can win this year, as well as wealthy potential donors in states that won’t go for Trump.
Modi is a Hindu nationalist with whom Trump shares a nativist governing philosophy and a flair for showmanship. It doesn’t hurt that Modi has also shown a knack for pushing his own nation’s agenda while stroking the US leader’s ego.
Trump is more popular in India than he is in many other nations, including traditional allies such as Germany and Britain. Whereas popular opinion of Trump has declined in many quarters overseas since he took office, he has roughly quadrupled his support in India since 2016, according to the Pew Research Centre.
The Trump Organisation has real estate holdings in India, and Trump will hold an event in New Delhi aimed at drumming up business for US firms.
Friction over India’s purchase of a Russian-made missile shield system hangs over Trump’s visit, as well as frustration on both sides that months of fitful discussions failed to produce a final trade pact. The two countries had hoped to have the pact completed for Modi’s US visit last September.
The US trade deficit with India reached US$24.1 billion last year, according to statistics compiled by S&P Global. US exports to India are rising, but the growth in Indian exports to the US was nearly double the growth of US exports to India last year.
A light presidential touch on human rights in Trump’s foreign policy has worried some on Capitol Hill. ‘‘Recent events have raised a number of concerning issues, most notably being the crackdown in Kashmir and the growing trend of Hindu nationalism in India’s political system,’’ Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young said. – Washington Post