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Trump’s India triumph — 24 Comments

  1. I noticed that Melania’s jacket has a bit of a Nehru collar. But the rest of the outfit is sufficiently modern, classy, and western looking that I don’t think it smacks of the dreaded cultural appropriation. Not that I would care if it did.

    I had no idea Trump would be popular there. I had seen some documentary about the success of micro and nano businesses springing up in ghettos in India in recent years but don’t recall the details.

  2. Local Indian small businessmen I talk to are very proTrump guys, and more proTrump India policy guys. They tell me PM Modi struggles heroically to wring longstanding corruption from Indian business practices, with both some success and some failure. Generally speaking though, they’re pleased with Modi, wishing him well.

  3. An international alliance of competitors with principled alignment. This should be mutually beneficial.

  4. Melania’s outfit somewhat matches Modi’s.

    Equal and complementary: true for men and women, good for productive international relations.

  5. Right now I imagine Premier Xi is questioning the wisdom of standing against Trump instead of choosing to work with him. It’s just amazing “Mandate of Heaven” level stuff…

    People are only beginning to realize how crippling the last year or so has been for China. ZH is a controversial source but do glance through this if you have time. The situation is dire even if you factor in some exaggeration
    https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/it-will-be-really-really-bad-china-faces-financial-armageddon-85-businesses-set-run-out

  6. I expect that the impact of China’s coronavirus and other problems will be a lot less than it *would* have been, had Trump’s trade policies not encouraged a lot of American companies to start moving their sources of supply to non-China countries (including the US), and/or to at least put some redundancy into their supply chains.

  7. Melania’s garb in those Indian photos is perfect. Western, comfortable, light colors with the touch of green at the waist, respectful of all cultures in a conservative country. For Hindus, the only thing she could have done better would be to put on a sari. But the country is not all-Hindu, and what she chose was also acceptable to the large Muslim minority.

  8. sdferr, yes, Indians enjoy seeing Western ladies in saris. For the non-Muslim population, it’s the most respectable and beautiful attire. I wore it sometimes, although as a middle-aged American woman I was a little uneasy about exposing my midriff in public.

  9. Gerard vdl: “I can’t remember when the situation wasn’t dire.”

    I assure you and all other young whippersnappers that there was a time when the sitch was NOT dire 🙂

  10. Melania is a truly amazing, wondrous First Lady. She has outdone them all, even Jacqueline Kennedy, the previous holder of first place for grace, style and endurance. Melania makes Michelle O look like the scullery maid she would have been pre-1861.

  11. Well, Cicero, while I often thought Michelle Obama’s wardrobe choices were not the best for state occasions, she is without doubt a very attractive woman. I had thought that some of my disapproval of Michelle’s wardrobe was because of my age and what I think is appropriate for her position on the national stage. But that turned out not to be it, because Melania is the same general age as Michelle but always appropriately dressed at public events.

    What is truly amazing is that fashion publications and “women’s” magazines don’t present the images of Melania and her graceful and lovely appearance, whereas they fawned over Michelle.

  12. I seldom use a hand-held for checking the news. Recently I have been doing so because of a change in routine. I have no special software on my phone and so I get whatever AT&T/Chrome directs me to. Which is Yahoo.

    Everything relating to Trump there, is not only negative, but openly hostile. Snide and fulminating contempt is about as good as it gets. I’m told that the Trumps look diminutive in comparison to the shrubbery at the Taj despite his overblown ego; that Melania has managed to force herself to stand abreast of him this time and to even hold his hand; or that Trump fumbles with the pronunciation of Indian cricketeer’s names. And though the crowd goes wild with approval at their mention, knowing knowers know better, and the Internet is enriched I am told, as they smirk and snicker across social media.

    As I don’t read any of the “news sites” Yahoo presents as news source material – HuffPo? really? – this has been a new experience for me. Or at least one I have not undergone in more than a handful of years. When was the last time for example you intentionally encountered the Huffington Post?

    The casual viciousness, the sneering, the gleeful malice, and the total obsession with transgender this, and sexual that, has left me baffled that anyone’s soul could survive on a diet like that; much less the production of it.

    I knew things were bad; even mainstream bad. But I didn’t know it was that bad.

  13. Yes DNW I agree and saddened by the poor treatment of President Trump in the MSN. It really is disgraceful. I was recently in India for a month travelling in the south. Everywhere I went the Indian people gave a big thumbs up to Trump. The only exceptions I met were Americans (not all) who could not wait to disparage the president. Sad.

  14. AesopFan — I didn’t think much of Melania’s dress at the state dinner. It looked like a housedress, or, as my French friends would say, “Cette une schmatte!” Neo, what’s your judgement?

  15. Richard Saunders:

    She looked elegant and lovely, as usual, but that particular dress is not my favorite look for her. She has such a beautiful figure that she can show it off a bit more than that, although nothing too revealing (which she discreetly tends to avoid anyway). Melania is almost incapable of not looking good, though. I think she may have chosen the dress because of the over-the-shoulder flowy thingee, which is rather sari-like, and because it emphasizes her great height.

  16. Neo: “particular dress is not my favorite look for her. She has such a beautiful figure that she can show it off a bit more than that, although nothing too revealing”

    She was in a country that is socially conservative and what she was wearing was absolutely appropriate. Recall how she was dressed when she met the Pope.

  17. What Andy said.
    Sometimes you do the personal thing, and sometimes you do the diplomatic thing.

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