Trump is in India right now, soaking up the adulation of the huge crowd its president Modie turned out for him. He’s ready to go the extra mile to reward him any way he can. Trump is very, very pleased.
“You have done a great honor to our country. We will remember you forever, from this day onwards India will always hold a special place in our hearts,” Trump said to thunderous applause.
India is one of the few big countries in world where Trump’s personal approval rating is above 50%. It has built up ties with the United States in recent years as Washington’s relationship has become strained with India’s foe Pakistan.
“As we continue to build our defense cooperation, the United States looks forward to providing India with some of the best and most feared military equipment on the planet,” Trump said.
Trump said the two countries will sign deals on Tuesday to sell military helicopters worth $3 billion and that the United States must become the premier defense partner of India, which relied on Russian equipment during the Cold War. Reuters reported earlier that India has cleared the purchase of 24 helicopters from Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) worth $2.6 billion.
But in a sign of the underlying political tensions in India, violent protests broke out in Delhi – where Trump is due on Tuesday – over a new citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims and is a further attempt to undermine the secular foundations of India’s democracy.
Vehicles were set on fire in the eastern part of Delhi, metal barricades torn down, and thick smoke billowed through the air as thousands of those who are supporting the new law clashed with those opposing it.U.S. President Donald
In his speech Trump extolled India’s rise as a stable and prosperous democracy as one of the achievements of the century. “You have done it as a tolerant country. And you have done it as a great, free country,” he said.
Treating Trump as a King doesn’t honor our country although Trump believes it does. He only wishes he could be as openly authoritarian as Modi. A second term may offer that opportunity.
He knows nothing about India. Recall this:
As they met during the president’s first visit to Asia in October 2017, Narendra Modi spelled out his concerns about China’s ambitions in the region, which Trump replied to by saying, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.”
In their book, A Very Stable Genius, two Washington Post reporters detail how “Modi’s eyes bulged out in surprise” at Trump’s apparent failure to understand that his country did indeed share a border with China, a line that extends some 2,500 miles.
The US has always had to play a delicate balancing act in the region between Indian, Pakistan and China, all of which are powerful nuclear-armed nations with shifting alliances and specific agendas. Trump is too stupid to understand anything that delicate. Modi realized he was dealing with an imbecile and adjusted his strategy. He flatters and fetes Trump like a pampered potentate to get what he wants and it’s working.
Now that Trump has nothing but hacks working on foreign policy and national security, nobody will tell him any different.