Trump Rates Modi As 'A Great Guy' For Bringing Political Stability in India
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Trump recalls his viral ‘I’m the Boss’ remark during G7 meet as an attempt by him to act funny and cute
By The Slate Bureau
New Delhi, June 20: US President Donald J Trump praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he was “a great guy” who had ushered in political stability in India.
“You know, all my life I've watched India. They just kept changing, changing, changing. Somebody would be there for six months and then a year. And then all of a sudden, Prime Minister Modi ends up there,” Trump said in an interview with Axios.
“He's been there for more than 12 years, very solid. And he does it through, like, there's a great calmness, and yet he's not a calm person. He's a very tough guy. I know him very well,” Trump added.
Trump recalled his “funny” act of walking in during the G7 meet proclaiming he was the “boss” while 7 people, including a great guy “Modi of India”, were sitting.
“I was just being funny… And I saw them all sitting. They're all well-known figures. The heads of countries. We had a couple of others in there too, as you know. As an example, Modi of India, a great guy,” Trump said, while acknowledging it may have been in some quarters as his arrogance.
“And you know that was done as a joke. This thing I carried all over the world. I can't believe it. I was just being cute. Funny. I wasn't trying to be the boss,” he said.
Trump rated Chinese President Xi and Modi as great leaders.
On being asked to rate leaders in terms of their “power and leverage and the ability to execute”, Trump said: “Well, I think Modi is very good. Yeah, they've had some very good numbers announced. He stays out of wars, which is smart. He's 1.5 billion people. He's actually the biggest. India's actually the biggest.”
Trump said he rated Modi as a great leader and added that US did a lot of business with India.
He, however, said that India was not happy doing business during his tenure. “They used to really rip us off. I don't blame them for that. We had stupid politicians, but, that allowed that to happen. But now we do a lot of business. They're not that happy about it because they used to do a lot better,” he said.
Trump in his inimitable style said Modi and President Xi were better that Hollywood stars. “But Modi's great. President Xi is great. Classics, you know. I mean, if you were going to make a movie about either one of them, you wouldn't be able to find the man in Hollywood. I'm telling you,” he said.
He said Xi had a great look and a “great stature” and Modi was different. “Modi in a very different way. Just highly respected. I've seen, you know, I know the real Modi is a very tough cookie. I'll tell you, you have, I got to know some that I didn't know very well,” he said.
