NEW DELHI, April 24 - India has publicly reacted to comments about the country that were shared by U.S. President Donald Trump, calling them uninformed and inappropriate and saying they run counter to the nature of India-U.S. relations.
The remarks were originally aired on The Savage Nation talk radio program by conservative commentator Michael Savage and described some countries, including India, as a "hellhole." Trump posted a transcript of the show on his Truth Social account on Thursday without adding any comment of his own.
In the transcript Savage says: "A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet. That there’s almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case. No, they’re not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors." Attempts to contact Savage were not immediately successful.
Separately, Trump has issued a directive aimed at restricting birthright citizenship in the United States, a move that faces a legal challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the president attended a hearing on that issue in what was described as a historic visit to the court.
India's foreign ministry responded late on Thursday through its spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal. "The remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste," Jaiswal said. "They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests."
The U.S. embassy in New Delhi offered a contrasting note, saying: "The president has said 'India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top'."
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
India's main opposition Congress party condemned the "hellhole" language as "extremely insulting and anti-India. It hurts every Indian," and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the matter directly with the U.S. President and register a strong objection. The party published its remarks on the social media platform X.
Official Indian government figures indicate that nearly 5.5 million people of Indian origin live in the United States. The article notes that Indian Americans and Chinese Americans are the two largest groups of Asian origin in the U.S.
The recent diplomatic friction comes against a background of warming and cooling in India-U.S. ties. The relationship between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warm during Trump's first term, but relations cooled after India was affected last year by some of the highest U.S. tariffs; many of those tariffs were rolled back this year. India and the United States are engaged in talks on a trade agreement intended to prevent a renewed rise in tariffs and to increase bilateral sales.
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