Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a "total killer" with the nation's adversaries and turned down offers of help when India faced threats, former US President Donald Trump has said.
"He's great, he's a friend of mine, but on the outside, he looks like he's your father," yet "he's the nicest, total killer," Trump recalled during a podcast interview released recently.
We had a couple of occasions where somebody was threatening India. I said, let me help. I'm very good with those people. Let me help, he added while elaborating on the assessment.
But PM Modi refused and told him, "I will do it. I will do it and anything necessary. We've defeated them for hundreds of years," Trump said.
Quoting PM Modi, Trump turned into a growl of a tough guy for effect on a podcast show, *Flagrant*, hosted by two comedians, Aakash Singh, and Andrew Cameron Schulz.
"It's incredible. He was talking about a certain country, yeah, you can probably guess, but I said: "Whoa, what happened there"?
He left it hanging in the air which was the "certain country," but there were two major confrontations that involved China and Pakistan during Trump's rule, both of which did not escalate.
In 2019, following the Pulwama terrorist attack from Pakistan that killed about 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, the Indian Air Force struck the terror camps in Balakot, situated deep inside Pakistani territory.
There was the 2020 clashes without guns in Galwan in which some troops from both India and China were killed.
The Republican presidential candidate said that, at a personal level with PM Modi, "we have a very good relationship. He's the nicest human being."
Trump commented when Schulz asked whether the world leaders are "all sharks"? And if he can feel it right away, and how do they assess the personalities of these people?
Trump told Schulz that not all of them were "sharks," but did mention PM Modi as one of the tough leaders.
In his evaluation of others, he mentioned Chinese President Xi Jinping as among the tough guys. And on French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump said, "He's a smart guy. He's all for France. I mean, he would, he would take the shirt off your back."
Disparaging President Joe Biden, he said that the other leaders -- "some good people and some aren't good people" -- are "at the top of their game," but "although he's still president" he is not capable of facing up to them.
As election for the presidency approaches, both Trump and Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris have recently appeared on off-mainstream programs like *Flagrant* to reach out to the younger people and others who have tuned out the legacy media.
Laughter and jokes resound on that comedy-filled program as Trump said PM Modi "is the nicest Indian," then looking at Singh, asked him, "Do you like him or not?"
The US-born Singh, whose family is from Uttar Pradesh, replied noncommittally, "I have family on both sides."
With his penchant for hyperbole, Trump said that till PM Modi became Prime Minister there was instability in India. "Before him … they were replacing them every year. It was very unstable."
In fact, in the decade before PM Modi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress Party ruled uninterrupted for two terms.
He reminisced about the "Howdy Modi" event he participated in in Houston last year.
"It was me and him. We filled up the stadium. Was beautiful, like 80,000 people. Was going crazy," he said.
But with a wistful note of when he wasn't in the stranglehold of security as he is now after two attempts at taking his life, he added, "We're walking around. Maybe today I wouldn't be, maybe you wouldn't do that. We're walking, walking in the middle, waving to everybody."
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