During a press event at the White House with President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening, the two leaders reaffirmed our nations’ close friendship–and Trump ended the news conference with a stunning announcement relating to how the U.S. seeks to engage during his second term with China and Russia.
While speaking about the allies’ relationship during Trump’s first time as president, PM Modi graciously invited him to make another visit to India, adding that his people “still fondly remember” the last trip in 2020:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi invites President Trump to visit India in his second term 🇺🇸🤝 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/tba61LB6tv
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 13, 2025
Pres. Trump spoke about Modi’s recent, positive change to his country’s tariffs against the United States, which was “limiting” our ability to access one of the world’s largest markets; he noted that some of the tariffs reached up to 70 percent on American goods being imported to India, including on cars:
“Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed that we will begin to address the long-standing disparities,” Trump said, chiding the Biden administration for failing to do so, with a goal of signing an agreement on tariffs soon:
President Donald J. Trump and Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi announce new deals on trade, energy, and artificial intelligence pic.twitter.com/Caq0kezOG0
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 13, 2025
The U.S. and India will also work on joint development of AI, the president added.
The remarks follow a major trade policy announcement, as we wrote earlier on Thursday:
As Promised, Trump Enacts Reciprocal Tariffs—Let the Liberal Freakout Commence
Pres. Trump also highlighted the stark difference in the two countries’ current relationship, compared to the last four years under the Biden administration:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “India did not have a good relationship with the Biden administration. They wouldn’t sell them oil and gas which is hard to believe… We want to make it good for India. That kind of relationship is important to us.” pic.twitter.com/tQ70Jd50QM
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 13, 2025
In one part of his remarks that was unrelated to India and the U.S.’s relationship, Pres. Trump exuded confidence that “we’re going to be able to make a deal” to end the Ukraine-Russia war, after “good conversations” this week with both Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky:
President Trump provides an update on negotiations to finally bring the war in Ukraine to an END pic.twitter.com/7jG9x3ApR4
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 13, 2025
Power Phone Call: Trump Speaks to Putin About Ukraine, Middle East, AI
Then Trump said that his administration has been forced to “put out the fires” that Biden allowed to rage out of control around the world, before getting started on putting his stamp on Trump 2.0 foreign policy.
It led into a fairly bold announcement:
I come back and the whole world is on fire, so I have to put out the fires. After I put out the fires, I’m going to meet with China, and I’m going to meet with Russia.
We’re going to see if we can de-escalate, if we can bring it down, militarily, especially as it pertains to nuclear.
This is a developing story. RedState will provide updates as they become available.
