‘Trump calls India a great country’: US in crossfire mode after president’s ‘hell’ comments

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Thursday described India as a “great country”, a remark that raised eyebrows just hours after he retweeted a social media post making anti-immigration rhetoric calling India and China “hell”.“The US Embassy in New Delhi issued a clarification, with spokesman Christopher Elm confirming the MAGA top leader’s positive remarks.“India is a great country and I have a very good friend at the top,” the spokesperson quoted Trump as saying, IANS reported.Meanwhile, India also responded to Trump’s “hell” post, with MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal saying, “We’ve seen some reports. That’s where I leave it.”The U.S. response came as Trump retweeted the post on Truth Social, sparking backlash and repeatedly calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “great friend.”The controversial post criticized immigration in the United States and referred to countries such as India and China in derogatory terms, sparking political criticism. “Babies here instantly become citizens, and then they bring whole families in from China or India or somewhere else on the planet. You don’t have to look far to see this. English is no longer spoken here. The class of immigrants coming in today have little loyalty to this country, and that wasn’t always the case,” it reads.It further alleged systemic bias in the employment and immigration systems: “You have to be from India or China because almost all internal mechanisms are run by Indians and Chinese.” The post also claimed that the integration seen in earlier waves of European immigration was “long over,” arguing that the United States had transformed from a “melting pot” to a “cash pot.”