Donald Trump says India ‘very big abuser’ of trade ties, calls PM Modi ‘fantastic’

Former US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that India was a "very big abuser" of the US-India trade relationship. The Republican candidate for the US presidential election in November was speaking in Flint, Michigan.

In his first public appearance after an attempted assassination in Florida this week, Trump spoke about "Trump Reciprocal Trade Act" and also mentioned he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week.

Despite criticising India over trade without being specific, Trump called PM Modi a "fantastic man".

Speaking in Michigan Tuesday, Trump said, "A lot of these men are fantastic. You have to understand one thing...these people are the sharpest people. They are not a little bit backward...they are at the top of their game and they use it against us."

"India is very tough, Brazil is very tough...China is the toughest of all, but we are taking care of China with the tariffs," Trump said.

Explaining his idea of the "Reciprocal Trade Act", the US presidential candidate said, "...we are going to do Reciprocal Trade. If anybody charges us 10 cents, if they charges $2, if they charge us 100 percent or 250 percent, we are going to charge them the same thing."

"And you know what's gonna happen? Everything will disappear and there will end up having a free trade again and if it doesn't disappear, we are going to take in a lot of money," Trump said.

Trump on nuclear power and global warning

Former US President Donald Trump said at a campaign event that the US needs to have people who are respected by their opponents.

He mentioned that, “...Pakistan has nuclear weapons, India has a lot of nuclear force...”

"We have countries that have tremendous nuclear power, and when I hear these people talking about global warming, that's the global warming we have to worry about, not that the oceans gonna rise in 400 years and eighth of the inch, and you have more seafront property right after that happen...I said isn't that a good thing if I have a little property on the ocean."

Trump maintained that nuclear weapons are “the single biggest threat to the civilization.”