Trump praises India after 'hell-hole' row

Donald Trump moved to calm a diplomatic flare-up on Thursday, saying India is “a great country” after he amplified a post that called it a “hell-hole.” (ndtv.com) The new line came through the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, which said Trump had described India as “a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top,” a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian outlets reported the embassy statement on April 23 after queries from local media. (indiatoday.in, moneycontrol.com) Hours earlier, Trump had reposted a transcript and video from conservative radio host Michael Savage arguing against birthright citizenship in the United States. In that repost, Savage referred to people coming from “China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” and Indian media said Trump shared the transcript on Truth Social. (hindustantimes.com, indianexpress.com) The repost landed in the middle of a U.S. legal fight over birthright citizenship, the rule under the Fourteenth Amendment that generally grants citizenship to people born in the United States. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Trump’s order to limit that policy on April 1, 2026. (pbs.org, reutersconnect.com) Indian officials did not escalate publicly. At a weekly briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said only, “We’ve seen some reports,” and stopped there. (financialexpress.com) That measured response came as Washington and New Delhi were already managing a relationship that mixes security cooperation with trade friction. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post three weeks ago that the two countries were still negotiating trade barriers and said he expected to speak with Modi “in the upcoming weeks.” (truthsocial.com) Trump has also paired praise for India with complaints about tariffs and Russian ties. In a separate Truth Social post crawled on April 23, he said India was a friend but accused it of maintaining “far too high” tariffs and buying most of its military equipment and energy from Russia. (truthsocial.com) Savage’s comments drew attention in India not only for the slur but for the immigration argument attached to it. Reports on the repost said the segment claimed pregnant women travel to the United States late in pregnancy so children born there can later sponsor relatives, a longtime talking point in the birthright citizenship debate. (news18.com, firstpost.com) By Thursday evening in New Delhi, the clean-up line was the one carrying official weight: India was no longer being described through a reposted insult, but as a “great country” led by a leader Trump called a friend. (ndtv.com, indiatoday.in)