US President Donald Trump on Friday made yet another claim that he has been told by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that 10 million people are expected to turn up along a 22-km-long road in Ahmedabad when he lands in India next week.

The latest claim by the American President comes despite city’s Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra’s assertion that around one lakh people will turn up to see Trump.

Advertisement

Earlier, talking to reporters, Trump had claimed PM Modi had told him that there will be five to seven million people just from the airport to the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad.

President Trump had jokingly told reporters that now he will “not feel good” about the size of the crowd that he addresses in the US which is usually between 40,000 to 50,000.

“He (Modi) said we will have millions and millions of people. My only problem is that last night we probably had 40 or 50,000 people… I’m not going to feel so good… There will be five to seven million people just from the airport to the new stadium (in Ahmedabad),” Donald Trump said.

President Trump along with his wife and First Lady Melania Trump will be on a two-day visit in India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This will be US President Trump’s first visit to India. It will be his fifth meeting with PM Modi in eight months. There are three legs to the US President’s visit with his first stop at Ahmedabad, followed by Agra and finally Delhi.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said the ‘Namaste Trump’ event scheduled to be held in Ahmedabad for the American President next week will be similar to the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event held in Houston last September.

The ‘Namaste Trump’ event is being organised by the Donald Trump Nagrik Abhinandan Samiti.

A high-level delegation is likely to accompany President Trump to India including Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, NSA Robert O’Brien, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Director, Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney.

Meanwhile, India hopes to sign a trade deal with the United States during Trump’s visit. However, the US president said on Wednesday that he might postpone the trade agreement till the US presidential elections.

Speaking on the same, Kumar today said: “We do hope to reach an understanding. We would not like to rush into a deal as issues involved are complicated. We don’t want to create an artificial deadline. For us the interests of people are paramount.”

However, Trump on Friday said he and Modi will speak on trade issues.

Speaking about the same, Trump said: “I am going to India next week, and we are talking trade. They have been hitting us very hard for many years. I really like PM Modi but we gotta talk a little business. One of the highest tariffs in the world is India.”

Over the last three years, President Trump and PM Modi have developed a personal friendship and in 2019, the duo met four times including their joint address before a strong 50,000 crowd of Indian-Americans in Houston.