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3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Apr 23, 2026 07:44 PM IST
Trump reposted a video of prominent conservative author and radio host Michael Savage, who claimed the current legal system allows immigrants to exploit American laws by arriving in the “ninth month of their pregnancy”. (AP Photo)
As US President Donald Trump reposted a criticism by a prominent MAGA influencer and Trump supporter targeting India and China by calling them “hellhole on the planet”, India steered clear of criticising the American President and merely said that they have seen the reports.
Trump reposted a video of prominent conservative author and radio host Michael Savage, who claimed the current legal system allows immigrants to exploit American laws by arriving in the “ninth month of their pregnancy”.
In the footage, Savage argued that such practices create a loophole where “a baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet”.
The footage, originally aired on the Newsmax series The Savage Nation, was reposted by Trump, along with the script of the message.
In Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have seen the reports. I will leave it there.”
In the clip, Savage said, “Today’s brief, abbreviated discussion will be about the arguments that I just listened to before the Supreme Court about birthright citizenship. I was somewhat incensed by listening to the arguments because all I heard was legalese being bandied back and forth.”
Savage claimed that “English is not spoken here anymore” and alleged a lack of loyalty among modern immigrants.
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He also said, “No, they’re not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors. The Irish integrated, the Italians integrated, the Polish integrated, the Lithuanians, the Romanians, the Russians. They all integrated and became Americans in the melting pot.”
Savage stated that the traditional concept of assimilation has failed, noting, “The idea of the melting pot is long over. It is now just cash in pot. We’ve gone from the melting pot to the chamber pot.”
This is not the first time that immigrants from India have to face such racist abuse by the MAGA Republican base, a core constituency of President Trump.
In December 2024, right winger Laura Loomer criticised the H1B visa programme for skilled foreign professionals to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves.
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This had reopened the debate of immigration of skilled workers, with Elon Musk, and fellow tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — who was a presidential candidate in the primaries before dropping out and tapped by Trump to lead the DOGE — supporting the H-1B visa programme even as right-wingers had criticised it.
Immigration was an important political hot-button issue in the 2024 US presidential elections, where Trump had promised to shut down illegal immigration at the southern border and start a mass deportation effort. However, the current debate focuses on legal immigrants, and birthright citizenship is at the core of the debate and is being heard by the US Supreme Court as well.
Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
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