Former US President Donald Trump revealed at a town-hall meeting in Flint, Michigan, that he will be meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modi’s upcoming visit to the United States. Modi is scheduled to arrive in the US for a three-day trip from September 21 to 23.
During his visit, PM Modi will participate in the Quad Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is set to meet with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Wilmington is notably the hometown of President Biden. Additionally, Modi will address world leaders at the Summit of the Future event at the United Nations headquarters and attend a community event on Long Island.
Trump, praising Modi’s leadership, said, “He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he’s fantastic. I mean, fantastic man. A lot of these leaders are fantastic,” during the town-hall event.
While expressing admiration for Modi, Trump maintained his stance on trade policies, emphasizing his administration’s approach to tariffs. “These people are the sharpest people…You know the expression, they’re at the top of their game, and they use it against us. But India is very tough. Brazil is very tough….China is the toughest of all, but we were taking care of China with the tariffs,” Trump said.
Trump reiterated his commitment to reciprocal trade policies: “So we’re going to do a reciprocal trade. If anybody charges us 10 cents, if they charge us USD 2, if they charge us a hundred per cent, 250, we charge them the same thing. And what’s going to happen? Everything’s going to disappear, and we’re going to end up having free trade again. And if it doesn’t disappear, we’re going to take in a lot of money,” he added.
As the US Presidential election approaches in two months, Trump, the official Republican nominee, is positioned favorably against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the current Vice President. Trump has also survived two assassination attempts, further adding to the dramatic backdrop of his campaign.