Donald Trump attempted to impersonate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while giving a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Trump was speaking about a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan on Wednesday when he tried to slip into the accent.
The two nuclear armed nations were engaged in conflict in May after a terrorist attack in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir killed 26 people.
Highlights
- Donald Trump impersonated Indian PM Narendra Modi with an unflattering accent during a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
- Trump claimed credit for ending the India-Pakistan conflict by threatening 250% tariffs on both countries, a claim disputed by Indian officials.
- Indian leaders, including Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, denied U.S. mediation in the Kashmir, emphasizing bilateral talks only.
Donald Trump impersonated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump has credited himself with ending that conflict, a claim he repeated during his Asia trip as he praised Modi as “the nicest-looking guy.”
The U.S. president further described Modi as someone “you’d like to have as your father,” but added, “he’s a killer.”
Trump then tried to impersonate Modi, saying, “No, we will fight,” in what appeared to be an attempt at an Indian accent.
He continued, “I said, ‘Whoa, is that the same man that I know?’”
Trump told the crowd that he managed to stop the hostilities by threatening to impose a 250% tariff on both countries.
“After a little while, and they’re good people, and after literally two days they called up, and they said we understand, and they stopped fighting—isn’t that amazing?”
He went on to ask the room, “You think Biden would have done that? I don’t think so. Most people wouldn’t have thought of it, but you know.”
“I said I was going to put 250 percent tariffs on each country, which means that you’ll never do business… That’s a nice way of saying we don’t want to do business with you… and they understood that and within 48 hours we had no war,” Trump added.
The conflict between the two nations began on May 7 when India bombed nine locations it claimed were connected to terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Pakistan claimed that the civilian population had been targeted in the strikes, a claim denied by Indian authorities.
Image credits: Leon Neal/Getty Images
After the countries traded blows over the following days, a ceasefire agreement was announced on May 10.
While Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance spoke to Indian officials during the conflict, India has rubbished claims that Trump deserves credit for de-escalating it.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a statement in June that Modi had made clear to Trump that the ceasefire was not achieved through U.S. mediation.
“Talks for ceasing military action happened directly between India and Pakistan through existing military channels, and on the insistence of Pakistan,” Misri said.
“Prime Minister Modi emphasized that India has not accepted mediation in the past and will never do.”
The country’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also said in July that it was “completely incorrect and baseless to say that the military action was stopped because of pressure.”
Trump described Modi as someone “you’d like to have as your father,” but added, “he’s a killer”
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“India halted its operation because all the political and military objectives studied before and during the conflict had been fully achieved,” he added.
However, Pakistan in June nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his “decisive diplomatic engagement and pivotal leadership” in de-escalating the conflict.
Trump’s latest comments come amid reports that Modi skipped a regional leaders summit in Malaysia this week to avoid the U.S. president.
Sources told Bloomberg that Modi wanted to avoid talking to Trump and was concerned he would repeat the claim that the U.S. mediated the Pakistan ceasefire.
During his Asia trip, Trump has met with newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and on Wednesday announced a trade deal with South Korea is “pretty much finalized.”
He is also expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since he re-took office amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.