President Donald Trump, not someone to let a good insult go to waste, has caused outrage in India after sharing a social media post describing the country as a “hellhole.” Trump did not make the disparaging remarks himself, merely reposting the statement (without comment) on his Truth Social account. The words actually came from the conservative podcast host Michael Savage, as part of an attack on birthright citizenship.
“A baby born here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the Savage said. He accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans, and also said that they lack proficiency in English.
Indian officials dismissed the claims as “uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste.” The foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, added: “They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests.”
The world’s two largest English-speaking democracies need each other
What does the President have to gain by sharing derogatory statements about Indians? It chimes with Trump’s broader agenda to restrict migration and prioritize jobs for Americans over foreign nationals. The US is the second most popular destination for Indians, behind the United Arab Emirates. Many come to work in the tech sector under the H-1B visa program that companies use to hire skilled foreign workers. India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas in 2024, accounting for 71 percent of approved applications. President Trump has significantly tightened the scheme, introducing a $100,000 entry fee on new visa holders, as well as salary requirements to prevent firms undercutting the wages of Americans.
However, the Trump administration is all too aware that the program has plenty of powerful supporters, including Elon Musk (who is a former holder of a H-1B) because it helps American businesses to attract talent. Striking the right balance is not simple or easy.
This new hostility towards India is odd. Many Indian-Americans occupy top positions in business and political life – including in the Trump administration. Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and its parent company Alphabet, valued at $4.16 trillion, grew up in Chennai, India. The chief executive of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, is Indian-American as well. Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI Director, has family roots in Gujarat. Usha Vance, the wife of J.D. Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants. What must they make of their ancestral home being disparaged in this way?
More broadly, this controversy could not have come at a worse time. The US-India relationship is already in a fraught state. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to get on well enough with Trump. The President described India as “a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top.” Modi, in turn, talked of the President as his “dear friend.” When Trump visited India in 2020, Modi held an event in front of a crowd of 100,000, titled “Namaste Trump.”
Little of this personal warmth remains. Trump is said to be angry with India for downplaying his role in bringing an end to the skirmishes between India and Pakistan in 2025. The Pakistanis publicly thanked the US leader, later nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump has become close to the Pakistani military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and has praised Pakistan for its mediation efforts in the Iran war. This cosy relationship is hard for Indians to stomach. When Pakistan is up, India is down, and vice versa – this is the law of gravity in that part of the world.
Trump also angered India by imposing some of his biggest tariffs on the country, slapping 50 percent duties on its goods last year, which included a 25 percent penalty for buying Russian oil. In February, however, he cut these tariffs to 18 percent as part of a trade deal with India, the exact contours of which are still up in the air. It now falls to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to soothe ruffled feathers during a planned visit to India next month. He will have his work cut out.
The world’s two largest English-speaking democracies need each other. The United States is India’s biggest trading partner, and the Indian economy (the world’s sixth-largest with a GDP of $4.15 trillion) is expected to grow rapidly in the years ahead. India matters to the United States as a force for stability across the Indio-Pacific region – a critical junction in the trade routes connecting the Middle East, Africa and East Asia to Europe and the US.
It also serves as an important counterweight to China. That is why successive American leaders have cultivated good relations with India for decades now. Trump needs all the friends he can get, with America facing myriad challenges to its global supremacy. Echoing jibes about potential allies being “hellholes” is no way to make them.
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