External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday declined to comment on US President Donald Trump sharing a transcript of a video that used the term “hellhole” referring to countries like India and China when asked about the same at a press conference.
When a reporter questioned Jaiswal about the content of the video shared by Trump, the spokesman simply said, “We’ve seen some reports. I’m leaving it here,” and continued.
The transcript Trump re-shared was conservative radio host Michael Savage’s criticism of the United States’ birthright citizenship law.
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Savage is seen criticizing existing U.S. birthright citizenship laws, where he claims that the law allows people from other countries to travel to the United States during their pregnancies, so that once their children are born in the U.S., they automatically become citizens.
Savage says that under existing law, “a child becomes an instant citizen here” after a family migrates from countries like “China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.”
The footage first aired on the Newsmax series The Savage Nation. In the clip, Savage is seen expressing his frustration with the ongoing trial. He says, “Today’s short, abbreviated discussion will be about the arguments I just heard before the Supreme Court on birthright citizenship. I was a little irritated listening to the arguments, because all I heard was that I was legal when I was bandied about back and forth.”
The transcript also calls Indian and Chinese immigrants to the US “gangsters with laptops”.
It read: “They have done more damage to this nation than all the mafia families put together. In my humble opinion. Gangsters with laptops. They robbed us blind, treated us like second class citizens, let the Truda world triumph, stepped on our flag and so on.”
Savage has also criticized legal groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), alleging that they influence the country’s immigration policy.
“The person who made the case for flooding America with illegal aliens to change the demographics forever was a Chinese American who strikes me as a classic ACLU lawyer. Very smart, very evil and very devious,” Savage noted.
“The ACLU is the head of the snake. They’ve been around forever and they’re out there again trying to turn America into a cesspool,” he added.
Did Trump issue an explanation?
According to several media reports, the US embassy said Trump issued a clarification after the controversy that “India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top”. However, there has been no official X post from the US embassy in Delhi on this, and the statement is eerily similar to Trump’s comments from the 2025 Egypt summit where he said: “India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top and he has just done a fantastic job. I think Pakistan and India will live very nicely together.”
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Opposition targets Modi
Members of the opposition took pictures of PM Modi when Trump shared these comments about India.
The Congress posted: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up this matter with the US President and raise a strong objection,” adding, “However, given his track record, he cannot be expected to say anything before Trump.”
“Trump has repeatedly made insulting remarks about India and Modi has remained silent,” the Congress said, adding, “Narendra Modi is a WEAK PM and the whole country is bearing it.”
Posting on X, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said: “Hello @narendramodi ji, your Phraand Trump just called India a ‘hellhole’ and all Indians ‘gangsters with laptops’. Are you going to protest or just going to Khi Khi for your next election rally in Bengal?”
