Former United States President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently showered praise and admiration on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him the "nicest human being" and referring to him as a good "friend".
Trump hailed PM Modi while speaking at the Flagrant podcast, hosted by Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh. Calling him a "total killer", Trump also shared his assessment of world leaders and remarked that before PM Modi's appointment as the Prime Minister of India, the country was "very unstable".
Trump said: "Modi (India), he's a friend of mine and also the nicest human being. Before him being appointed as the Prime Minister, India was very unstable. On the outside, he looks like he's your father. He is the nicest and a total killer."
He further recalled the iconic "Howdy, Modi" event held in Texas during PM Modi's US visit in September 2019. PM Modi had addressed a large gathering of Indian-Americans at Houston city's NRG Stadium.
"They did a thing called Howdy, Modi in Houston, Texas. It was me and him and it was beautiful. It was a gathering of around 80,000 people and it felt like crazy. We were walking about. Today, maybe I won't be able to do something like that," he said.
Trump Recalls PM Modi's Reaction When 'Someone' Threatened India
Donald Trump also recalled a conversation when a country was threatening India. Although he did not take names he said "you can probably guess the country", and it was apparent that the incident involved tensions between India-Pakistan.
Without directly naming Islamabad, the former US President said: "On a couple of occasions, somebody was threatening India, and I told Modi, let me help as I am very good at it. To which he (Modi) aggressively responded, 'I will handle it and would do anything necessary. We have defeated them for hundreds of years.' And I said, whoa, what just happened there".
PM Modi and Trump have always shared a close relationship. PM Modi refers to Donald Trump as a "true friend", while Trump reciprocates by applauding him for his leadership and persona.
In February 2020, Trump had made a visit to India during his tenure as US President. He arrived in India for the "Namaste Trump" event held in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, which was attended by over one lakh people. It the largest rally conducted by a US President outside the country.
Recently, Donald Trump had called PM Modi a "fantastic person" and shared that he would likely be meeting PM Modi during his Quad Summit visit. However, the meeting did not take place.