Hours after Trump's hellhole remark against India, US's damage control
After a controversy erupted over his remarks, President Donald Trump spoke warmly of India, calling it "a great country" and a close partner, according to a US embassy spokesperson.
Hours after US President Donald Trump amplified a podcast calling India a "hellhole", Washington moved to contain the fallout, with its embassy praising ties and leadership in New Delhi.
"The President has said 'India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top'," a US Embassy spokesperson said, in an attempt to cool sentiments after Trump's post caused a furore here.
The clean-up came after Trump reposted content from American radio host Michael Savage, whose remarks lumped India and China among "hellholes" while arguing against birthright citizenship in the United States.
New Delhi, for its part, made its displeasure clear without directly condemning the US President. Responding to queries about the controversy, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We’ve seen some reports. That’s where I'll leave it."
WHAT SPARKED THE ROW
On his podcast, prominent conservative commentator Michael Savage railed against the Citizenship Clause, which grants citizenship to children born to parents who are in the US illegally or temporarily. He alleged immigrants from the two Asian giants misuse birthright citizenship.
"A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring in their entire family from China, or India or some other hellhole on the planet," he said.
Trump shared both the transcript and video of the controversial radio host's ‘Savage Nation’ podcast, where Savage ranted the US Supreme Court’s role in shaping birthright citizenship jurisprudence and called for a national referendum.
The letter accompanying Savage's remarks went further, describing Indian and Chinese immigrants as "gangsters with laptops" who have "stepped on our flag".
It further claimed that immigrants exploit public services such as healthcare and welfare, citing emergency room usage and alleged fraud, and argued that immigration is reshaping cultural and linguistic identity in the United States.
TRUMP’S WAR ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
Trump spotlighted Savage's racist spiel as he battles in the Supreme Court against a lower court ruling that blocked his executive order ending automatic citizenship for some US-born children.
The US President signed the order within hours of taking office last year, targeting children born on American soil to parents who’re in the country illegally or temporarily. The move triggered a tsunami of legal challenges.
Several US courts have uniformly blocked the executive order, with one judge calling it blatantly unconstitutional. The policy has not taken effect due to those rulings, which has riled Trump to take frequent jabs at the judiciary.
Earlier this month, Trump attended the birthright citizenship hearing in the Supreme Court, a first for a sitting president.