![\"Hellhole](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130481131,imgsize-59094,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/-.jpg\" "\\"<p>PM")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPM Modi and US President Donald Trump (File photo)<\/p>\n
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TOI Correspondent from Washington: <\/span>US President Donald Trump on Thursday befouled Washington’s already dodgy ties with the two largest countries in the world, reposting a four-page racist screed by a supporter that called India and China \u201chellholes\u201d and accused them of exploiting America\u2019s birthright citizenship privileges.The MAGA supremo, seen as unhinged and erratic by a growing number of Americans and known for posting unfiltered garbage, chose to repost an anti-immigrant tirade by conservative radio host Michael Savage, who espouses nativist nationalism, emphasising borders, language and culture. In his screed, Savage claims that under birthright citizenship, \u201ca baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.\u201dIn language that echoed crude nativist tropes, he alleged that immigrants from these countries exploit the system through so-called \u201cbirth tourism,\u201d and described them as \u201cgangsters with laptops,\u201d accusing them of undermining American workers and institutions.The post, shared on Trump\u2019s Truth Social platform, was not a passing endorsement or a casual \u201clike.\u201d It was a wholesale amplification of Savage\u2019s commentary, effectively elevating the rhetoric into the mainstream political discourse of a sitting president. By choosing to repost the entire commentary without caveat or distancing language, Trump was seen as endorsing not just the policy critique, but the rhetoric itself.The repost comes even as the US Supreme Court weighs the legality of Trump\u2019s executive order seeking to curtail birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. It also coincides with slipping approval ratings and a contentious midterm election cycle, suggesting that immigration\u2014and the cultural anxieties surrounding it\u2014remain central to Trump\u2019s political playbook.US officials, some of whom are clearly frustrated by Trump\u2019s unfiltered posts and statements, were left to clean up the mess by regurgitating some complementary things he has said about India in the past. The MAGA boss has often spoken of his personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, invoking personal camaraderie and great friendship, while rarely articulating a substantive policy vision for US-India relations.Despite the gloss American diplomats attempted to put on the fiasco, with the US embassy in New Delhi reaching out to the media to soften the latest slur, former officials are acknowledging that US-India ties are currently at an all-time low. Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama White House chief of staff, said at a Harvard event recently that the Trump administration had basically spat on India\u2019s face, even as many regional experts continue to be mystified by the US president\u2019s embrace of Pakistan, a country he described as a terrorist haven during his first term. India’s external affairs ministry said it had seen Trump’s post without elaborating.Trump\u2019s record is littered with controversial\u2014and often explicitly racist\u2014remarks stretching back years. During his first presidency, he reportedly referred to African nations, along with Haiti, as \u201cshithole countries\u201d in a White House meeting, while expressing a preference for immigrants from Nordic countries.Earlier, in one of the most notorious cases, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads in 1989 calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five case\u2014five Black and Latino teenagers later exonerated after spending years in prison. Even after their innocence was established, Trump continued to question their exoneration, a stance widely criticised as racially charged and emblematic of a broader pattern of prejudice that goes back to his father, Fred Trump, seen as an exploitative land shark.Trump\u2019s political career itself began with the so-called \u201cbirther\u201d conspiracy targeting Barack Obama, falsely claiming the first Black US president was not born in the US Throughout his campaigns, Trump also called for a \u201ctotal and complete shutdown\u201d of Muslim immigration, described Mexican immigrants as \u201crapists,\u201d and repeatedly warned of an \u201cinvasion\u201d from the southern border. In that context, the Savage repost appears less an aberration than a continuation.<\/div>\n