India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs U.S. President Donald Trump as they give joint statements in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S., June 26, 2017.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and described Mr. Modi’s change in demeanour in response to perceived threats. His comments were made on an episode of the Flagrant podcast, hosted by Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh.

Before getting into the segment on Mr. Modi, the former President asked the host, Mr. Singh, if he liked Mr. Modi. Mr. Singh, sidestepped the question, saying he had family on both sides, those who loved everything [about Mr. Modi] and those who did not.

“Before him, they were replacing ‘em every year,” Mr. Trump said, incorrectly. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Modi’s predecessor, was in the post from 2004-2014.

“He’s great, he’s a friend of mine,“ Mr. Trump said about Mr. Modi.

“But on the outside he looks like your father, he’s the nicest … total killer,” Mr. Trump said.

The former President described the Howdy Modi event held in 2019 in Houston, Texas, where he appeared with Mr. Modi at an Indian diaspora event.

“He’s the nicest human being, but we had a couple of occasions when someone was threatening India,“ Mr. Trump said, as he described his offer to help the Prime Minister with these threats.

“I will do it, I will do it, then I will do anything necessary,” Mr. Trump said, changing his voice and accent, doing an apparent impression of Mr. Modi.

“We’ve defeated them for hundreds of years,” Mr. Trump said, as he continued with his impression of Mr. Modi, adding that the Prime Minister was “talking about a certain country” — a reference to Pakistan. Pakistan, however, was created out of British India in 1947 and is less than 100 years old.

Mr. Trump characterised Mr. Modi as a “good person”.

The BJP took note of the podcast and made a social media post about it, criticising the Congress-led UPA government’s response to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.