MEA reacts to Trump’s viral ‘don’t want to destroy Modi’s political career’ video – Here’s what it said
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "MEA reacts to Trump’s viral ‘don’t want to destroy Modi’s political career’ video – Here’s what it said")
File photo: US President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2025. Photograph: (AFP)
India’s MEA reacted to a resurfaced 2025 video of Donald Trump joking about PM Modi’s career and claiming India would stop buying Russian oil.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday (Feb 12) reacted to an old video of US President Donald Trump, in which he is seen making a bizarre remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s career. This comes after the video resurfaced on social media and was widely circulated. The MEA stated that it will be taking appropriate action on the video, which dates back to October 2025.
When asked about the video by a reporter during a weekly press briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded by saying, “I have not seen the video. But if indeed there is such a video, whether it is true or false, we will take appropriate action on it.”
What did Trump say?
During a press conference in the White House on October 15, 2025, Trump was seen first praising PM Modi, but then joked that he did not want to destroy his political career.
“Modi is a great man, that he loves Trump. Now, I don’t know if the word love, I don’t want you to take that any different. I don’t want to destroy his political career, but you have to understand, I’ve watched India for years. My friend has been there now for a long time,” Trump said in the video.
In the same presser, Trump also claimed that PM Modi had assured him that India would stop buying Russian oil.
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“Yeah, sure. He’s (PM Narendra Modi) a friend of mine. We have a great relationship... I was not happy that India was buying oil. And he assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That’s a big step,” the US president claimed.
During the time when Trump made the remarks, India and the US relations were tense. Trump had imposed 50 per cent tariffs on New Delhi, citing its trade policies and Russian oil imports.
India-US trade deal
In a recent move, India and the US signed a trade deal, lowering tariffs on New Delhi. Notably, the fact sheet released by the White House does not mention anything concrete on India’s commitment to stop buying Russian oil, which had appeared earlier in an executive order signed by Trump. The sole mention of this can be found in a brief statement acknowledging that Trump “agreed to remove the additional 25% tariff on imports from India in recognition of India’s commitment to stop purchasing Russian Federation oil.”
The agreement will see the United States reduce so-called reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods to 18 per cent from the earlier 25 per cent level, though the timeline for implementing that reduction has not yet been finalised. Meanwhile, India will eliminate or reduce duties on all US industrial goods and a wide range of agricultural products.
