The exchange referred to an incident in April when US President Trump shared on social media a derogatory post by a podcaster that described India as a “hellhole”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced a curveball from an American journalist about his recent remarks on India during a press briefing in New Delhi on Sunday, as he stood alongside External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
A reporter raised the issue of Indians facing racism online and referred to a specific social media post involving US President Donald Trump. Rubio responded by saying he did not know who the reporter was referring to and had assumed the question concerned general online content.
“I don’t know who he was talking about. I figured, I assumed that he was talking about people posting stuff online,” Rubio said. “I don’t even know, some of those could be a troll, it could be a bot, I don’t know. So that’s why I asked him specifically, can you tell me what you’re talking about and who you’re talking about. He didn’t have a specific example.”
The reporter then added that it was something that Trump posted on online where he referred to India being a “hellhole”. Rubio replied that he had given the reporter an opportunity to specify, but the details were not provided.
“Well, I gave him a chance to tell me that, that’s not what he said,” he stated. “The president loves India. He said it last night, were you guys there when he called in for the event last night, the 250? The president’s a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi. I wouldn’t be here if the president didn’t want me to be here. He wouldn’t have sent someone like Sergio to be our ambassador, someone who’s very close to the president. But I gave that reporter a chance to tell me who he was referring to, and he didn’t.”
“So I just assumed he was talking just about random voices out there. I mean, people say stupid stuff all the time on social media, and every country in the world, unfortunately,” he added.
The exchange referred to an incident in April when US President Trump shared on social media a derogatory post by a podcaster that described India as a “hellhole”. At the time, the Ministry of External Affairs responded without naming Trump directly. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the comments “certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests.”
During the Sunday briefing, Rubio addressed concerns about racist remarks faced by Indians and Indian Americans.
“I’ll take that very seriously about the comments. I’m sure that there are people who have made comments online and in other places because every country in the world has stupid people. I’m sure there are stupid people here; there are stupid people in the United States who make dumb comments all the time,” he said.
