Trump’s India visit prioritizes pageantry
AHMEDABAD, INDIA >> Prioritizing pageantry over policy, President Donald Trump basked in India’s welcoming embrace on a day that featured a mega-rally with cheering crowds, a mutual admiration show with his counterpart and a sunset tour of the famed Taj Mahal.
Trump used Day One of his whirlwind 36-hour visit to India to reaffirm close ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tease progress on a trade deal down the road. But the day was largely devoted to a trio of enviable photo-ops: the largest rally of Trump’s presidency sandwiched between visits to a former home of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and the Taj Mahal.
In his first hours on the subcontinent, Trump received the adulatory reception that has eluded him on many foreign trips. More than 100,000 people packed the world’s largest cricket stadium, nearly all of then wearing white caps with the name of the event, “Namaste, Trump.”
But miles away in the capital of New Delhi, police used tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse a crowd of clashing protesters hours before Trump was due to arrive, as violence broke out over a new citizenship law that excludes Muslims. Anti-Trump street demonstrations also erupted in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Gauhati.
Trump opened his rally speech in Ahmedabad on Monday by declaring that he had traveled 8,000 miles to deliver the message that “America loves India, America respects India and America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.”
He praised India as a place where different faiths “worship side by side in harmony” and made no mention of the new law that is raising fears that the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test. And yet, he emphasized his own administrwation’s efforts to secure its borders and crack down on “radical Islamic terrorism.”
The sun-baked city bustled around him, its streets teeming with people eager to catch a glimpse of the American president. The president’s motorcade traveled newly cleaned roads planted with flowers and featuring elaborately costumed dancers and musicians as well as hundreds large of billboards featuring the president, Modi and first lady Melania Trump. Tens of thousands lined the route, making an impressive showing, but well short of the overthe-top prediction of up to 10 million that Trump had said Modi promised him would be on hand.
His first stop was Gandhi’s home, where Trump donned a prayer shawl and removed his shoes to walk through the humble ashram.