Trump's racist 'hellhole' rant against India, China sparks outrage

US President Donald Trump has sparked a diplomatic firestorm over his new racist antics after sharing a podcast episode that labeled China and India "hellhole" places.

The comments, made by conservative talk radio host Michael Savage on "The Savage Nation," suggested that recent immigrants from the two countries had failed to integrate into American society like white European Americans.

The racist tirade was reposted by Trump on his Truth Social account without any added commentary.  

"A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet," Savage said, according to the transcript shared by Trump.

"That there's almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case. No, they're not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors."

Trump offered no disavowal of the remarks. By reposting them without comment, critics said, the US president effectively endorsed a xenophobic attack on two of the world's most populous nations and their diaspora communities in the United States.

In a rare and sharp public rebuke of a sitting US president, the Indian government on Thursday condemned the remarks as "obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste."

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India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal issued a statement, dismissing the comments as factually wrong and deeply offensive.

"They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests," he said.

India's main opposition Congress party went further, calling the "hellhole" remark "extremely insulting and anti-India" and demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally confront Trump over the matter.

"It hurts every Indian," the party said on X. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up this matter with the US President and register a strong objection."

Asian American advocacy groups hit out at Trump for fueling hatred against minority communities at a time when his administration's crackdown on legal immigration has already left many Indian Americans and Chinese Americans fearing for their place in American society.

"We are deeply disturbed that @POTUS shared this hateful, racist screed targeting Indian and Chinese Americans," the Hindu American Foundation said in a statement on X.

"Endorsing such rants as the president of the United States will further stoke hatred and endanger our communities, at a time when xenophobia and racism are already at an all-time high."

Nearly 5.5 million people of Indian origin live in the United States, alongside millions of Chinese Americans, making them the two largest groups of Asian origin in the country.

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The fact that the wife of Trump's own vice president, Usha Vance, is of Indian heritage — her parents immigrated from India — lent an extraordinary layer of hypocrisy to the mercurial American president's reposting of the racist tirade.

The US embassy in New Delhi offered a limp defense, saying: "The president has said 'India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top'."

No explanation was provided for why Trump would share language describing India as a "hellhole" while maintaining that position.

Trump's directive seeking to restrict birthright citizenship is currently being challenged before the US Supreme Court. Earlier this month, he made a historic visit to the court to attend a hearing on the issue.

The "hellhole" episode came as Trump and Modi work to negotiate a trade deal after relations soured last year over steep US tariffs on Indian goods, many of which were later rolled back.

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