In a recent interview, President Donald Trump described Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a friend − someone who “looks like he’s your father.”
Then came the ultimate Trump praise.
“He’s the nicest,” Trump said. “Total killer.”
On Thursday, when Modi arrives at the White House, he’ll be among a handful of leaders visiting Trump in the first weeks of his second presidency. The leaders are expected to address the touchy topic of tech-friendly H-1B visas, along with trade and defense.
The U.S. has been courting India across administrations as it increasingly sees the South Asian country as a strategic counterweight to China. Former President Joe Biden hosted Modi for a state visit in 2023 and invited him to his home in Delaware in 2024.
Modi will arrive in Washington having met Vice President JD Vance in Paris at the AI Action Summit on Wednesday. Modi had coffee with Vance and Second lady Usha Vance, a daughter of Indian immigrants.
Immigration and H-1B visas
In December, Trump’s appointees to head the Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, ignited a political firestorm when they wrote about the need for foreign workers in technical fields.
Musk, an immigrant from South Africa, wrote on X that there was a “permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent” and that it was limiting Silicon Valley.
The following day, Ramaswamy, whose parents are Indian immigrants, offered an explanation of why that was: American society “venerated mediocrity over excellence,” he wrote.
