TOI Correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump, he of torrential verbiage, weighed in for the third straight day on Friday on the $21m purportedly allocated by USAID to increase voter turnout in India.
In an the off-the-cuff remark at a meeting with US governors, Trump said, “$21 million going to my friend Prime Minister Modi in India for voter turnout…”
He did not elaborate on his statement or offer any evidence.
Trump had previously suggested that the Biden administration, during whose time the money was purportedly assigned, was “trying to get somebody else elected” and the current Indian govt should be informed about this, implying Democrats in US were backing Congress. He followed it up a day later by saying the money did not go to India and instead was ‘kickback’ for US officials.
The random, imprecise remarks are typical of a President, who by the assessment of many psychologists, including his own niece Mary Trump, is an unrelenting narcissist fond of listening to his voice. Trump has been on a verbal tear from the time he assumed office.
Hard to keep track of Trump’s verbiage, gaslighting, much less refute or challenge
The sheer volume of verbiage US President Donald Trump dispenses, laced with hyperbole, exaggeration, and outright falsehoods, is hard to keep track of, much less refute or challenge. During his Feb 13 engagement with Modi, he was on TV for almost three hours, including two media engagements with the Indian PM.
During his engagement with Modi, Trump inflated India’s trade surplus with the US by more than double, putting it at $100 billion, when it is closer to $45 billion.
Such gaslighting has also led to fake AI generated speeches and quotes attributed to Trump that feed into the outrage industry on social media.
Over the weekend, one AI generated video showed Trump disparaging Indians, their accents, and general lack of hygiene and cleanliness in India.