Trump releases video featuring Modi in a bid to woo Indian-Americans

Indian Americans, numbering over two million, have emerged as a key constituency for both Republicans and the Democrats. On Sunday, Donald Trump’s campaign released its first video commercial featuring clips from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at Houston, as well as the US president’s address during his trip to Ahmedabad.

While Indian Americans have traditionally been pro-Democrat, Republicans seem to woo them with a lot of vigour after former vice president and 2020 Democratic party nominee Joe Biden selected California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate and vice presidential candidate.

Harris’ mother was Indian, while her father was Jamaican. Indo-Americans are well-educated and dominate the medicine, education, innovation and IT sectors in the US. Interestingly, both Biden and Harris greeted the Indian-American community on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi on Saturday.

Releasing the Trump video commercial, Kimberly Guilfoyle, national chair of Trump Victory Finance Committee, said in a Twitter post: “America enjoys a great relationship with India and our campaign enjoys great support from Indian-Americans!”

Trump’s son Donald Trump Junior, who is leading the campaign and seen as the go-between with the Indian-American community, retweeted the commercial which went viral on Twitter, a report said.

Titled “Four More Years”, the 107-second video starts with the iconic footage of Modi and Trump walking hand-in-hand at the NRG Stadium in Houston during the Indian prime minister’s visit to the US last September. The two leaders had addressed Indian-Americans and Indian expatriates numbering over 50,000 at the “Howdy Modi!” event, which witnessed the largest gathering during a foreign leader’s trip to the US with the exception of the Pope. The commercial follows a survey by Al Mason, co-chair of the Trump Victory Indian American Finance Committee, in battleground states, which said Indian-Americans, who traditionally vote for the Democrats, seem to be switching over to support Republicans in huge numbers because of the Modi-Trump friendship, and the Indian premier’s high popularity among a large section of the community, of which 2.5 million are eligible to vote, the report added.