PM Modi and US President Donald Trump (file photo)

TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday worsened Washington’s already sour relations with the world’s two largest countries by reposting a four-page racist rant by a supporter, calling India and China “hell” and accusing them of exploiting America’s birthright citizenship privileges.The MAGA supremo, who is considered unpatriotic and unregulated by a growing number of Americans and is known for posting unfiltered garbage, decided to repost an anti-immigrant attack by conservative radio host Michael Savage, who supports nativist nationalism while emphasizing borders, language and culture. In his article, Savage claims that under birthright citizenship, “Here a child becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the whole family over from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet.“In language that echoes crude nativist overtones, he charged that immigrants from these countries exploit the system through so-called “birth tourism” and described them as “gangsters with laptops”, accusing them of undermining American workers and institutions.The post shared on Trump’s Truth social platform was not a casual endorsement or a casual “like.” It was a wholesale amplification of Savage’s comment, effectively elevating the sitting president’s rhetoric into mainstream political discourse. By choosing to repost the entire comment without any warnings or distorted language, Trump was seen as endorsing not only the policy criticism, but the rhetoric itself.The repost comes as the US Supreme Court considers the legality of Trump’s executive order seeking to curtail birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. It also coincides with falling approval ratings and a contentious midterm election cycle, suggesting that immigration and the cultural concerns surrounding it remain central to Trump’s political strategy.US officials, some of whom are clearly frustrated by Trump’s unfiltered posts and statements, were left to clean up the mess by repeating some of the complementary things he had said about India in the past. The MAGA boss has often spoken of his personal relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing personal warmth and great friendship, while rarely articulating a concrete policy approach to US-India relations.Despite US diplomats trying to highlight the fiasco, the US Embassy in New Delhi approached the media to play down the latest scandal, with former officials admitting that US-India relations are currently at an all-time low. Former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently said at a Harvard event that the Trump administration had basically spit in India’s face, even as many regional experts are surprised by the US President’s embrace of Pakistan, a country he described as a haven for terrorists during his first term. India’s External Affairs Ministry said it had seen Trump’s post, without elaborating.Trump’s record is littered with controversial—and often explicitly racist—comments dating back years. During his first presidency, he reportedly referred to Haiti as well as African countries as “waste countries” in a White House meeting, while expressing a preference for immigrants from Nordic countries.Previously, in one of the most infamous cases, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads in 1989 calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five case – five black and Latino teenagers who were later acquitted after spending years in prison. Even after his innocence was established, Trump continued to question his acquittal, a stance that has been widely criticized as racially charged and is emblematic of a broader pattern of prejudice dating back to his father, Fred Trump, who was seen as an exploitative land shark.Trump’s political career began with the so-called “birther” conspiracy targeting Barack Obama, which falsely claimed that the first black American president was not born in the United States. Throughout his campaigns, Trump also called for a “complete and total shutdown” of Muslim immigration, described Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and repeatedly warned of an “invasion” from the southern border. In that context, Savage Repost seems less an aberration than a continuation.