Trump goes to India
President Trump departed for India Sunday, for a two day visit that seems set to draw crowds and controversy. On Monday, he will hold a rally in a cricket stadium in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, expected to draw some 120,000 people. Follow live coverage of Trump's visit from our reporters based in India and traveling with Trump. In the meantime, here is some coverage from The Washington Post to set the scene for the trip.
A woman walks past hoardings featuring the words 'Thank You Mr. And Mrs. Trump' on a route to Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, on Feb. 23. (T. Narayan/Bloomberg)
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Welcomed with a wall
The 49-year-old tailor has lived in this western Indian city for his entire life, but he has never seen anything quite like this.
Ahead of President Trump’s visit to India, workers have descended on his modest neighborhood, resurfacing roads, laying concrete sidewalks where none existed, fixing street lamps and painting an overpass with fresh white paint. On a recent afternoon, they gingerly placed row upon row of saplings into a barren road divider.
“It’s fantastic,” said Hamir Vaghela, surveying the activity around him. Trump “should come once every six months.”
Trump arrives Monday for his first visit as president to the world’s largest democracy, and although he is staying for only 36 hours, the Indian government is leaving nothing to chance. The iconic Taj Mahal is being buffed and scrubbed before a sunset visit by Trump and the first lady. The world’s largest cricket stadium — so new it is not officially open — will host a rally for up to 120,000 people dubbed “Namaste Trump,” or “Hello Trump.”
Other preparations are more controversial: In Ahmedabad, municipal authorities have raised a 6-foot-high, 200-yard-long wall in front of a slum along a road Trump may take near the airport. The city says the timing is a coincidence, but residents are not convinced. On earlier VIP visits, workers put up curtains on the route, they say.
“Now the number one country is coming, so as per the number one standards, they built the wall,” said Vikram Rathod, 40, a laborer who lives in the slum. “They have decided that poor people should not be seen.” — Joanna Slater
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Back to business
When President Trump arrives in India on Monday, it will be his first visit to the country as an elected official. But as a business executive, Trump has connections to India that stretch back years.
India is home to the largest portfolio of Trump real estate projects outside North America, according to the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., who has made repeated trips here in recent years. The ventures include four luxury residential projects and an office tower, all branded with the Trump name under licensing deals.
On his last trip to India in 2014, Donald Trump partied with Bollywood stars and praised the country’s potential. “I don’t consider this as an emerging market, I think it’s an amazing market,” he said in an interview with New Delhi Television.
Since then, two of Trump’s business partners in India have developed problems of their own: One is accused of massive fraud, while the other is facing a funding crunch. Both of them have close ties to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ahead of Trump’s visit, the president’s business partners were keeping a low profile. Two of them did not respond to requests for comment, and two others declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not respond to specific questions about its Indian ventures, but Trump Jr. said he was “incredibly proud” of the company’s “continued success in India.” — Niha Masih and Joanna Slater
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‘Namaste Trump’
No, the president has not suddenly discovered the meditative glow of a good yoga session. He has, however, discovered the energizing power of a good political rally, Indian-style.
President Trump will almost certainly not complete a new U.S.-India trade deal during his two-day visit. The trophy agreement has been repeatedly postponed amid trade tensions.
Instead, the centerpiece of the brief trip is a massive rally in Trump’s honor that his host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has billed as “Namaste Trump.” The greeting loosely translates from Sanskrit as, “I bow to you,” which may appeal to Trump as much as the idea that the gathering Monday in Ahmedabad is expected to fill, or nearly fill, the world’s largest cricket stadium. Never mind that the projected stadium capacity is perhaps 120,000, not “millions,” as Trump has exclaimed, and that it seems a stretch to estimate that a crowd approaching the population of New York City will line the streets for his arrival.
Whatever the numbers, Trump will draw a crowd that may be his largest ever. In addition to bragging rights, he hopes that popularity abroad can translate to votes back home. Although the Indian American diaspora of roughly 4.5 million people tends to vote Democratic, Trump has argued that his pro-business agenda and entrepreneurial background should be a draw. — Anne Gearan and Seung Min Kim
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