During an exchange on climate crisis as he clashed with Democratic rival Joe Biden on Covid-19, immigration, racism, healthcare and foreign policy in their second and final debate in the race for the White House, US President Donald Trump on Thursday used the word ''filthy'' to describe pollution in India.
"Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at, India, it's so filthy, the air is filthy," the president said in a segment on climate crisis. "The Paris accord, I took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars, and we were treated very unfairly when they put us in there, they did us a greatest service. They were going to take away our businesses," he said.
Trump's statement sparked a storm on social media when he used the word "filthy" to describe the quality of air in India as he has never used for a country he has counted among America's friends.
The president has used this argument before — that India and China got a sweeter deal under the Paris Accord and that's chiefly why he left the accord. That's a baseless assertion and India has contested it, but he had not used this language before for India, China, or Russia.
In the past, the US president had mockingly called India "tariff king" during trade talks, and underplayed its Covid-19 testing record to make his administration's response look better in the face of mounting criticism of its handling of the worst public health crisis in more than 100 years.
Trump also took every opportunity to draw Biden into a controversy swirling around conservative circles about the foreign business dealings of his son Hunter Biden, and accused Biden of earning millions from Russia and China.
Trump's remarks drew sharp reactions in India, with some urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give a strong rebuttal to Trump's statements. Opposition leaders like Congress's Kapil Sibal seized the comments to take a swipe at PM Modi's well-known bonhomie with President Trump.
Meanwhile, netizens immediately took to Twitter, mocking and expressing dissatisfaction towards Trump's statement.