Planned to visit India after US election but PM Modi didn't like the idea: Trump

NEW DELHI: President Donald Trump had planned to defer his India visit till after the US presidential election scheduled to be held later this year but came anyway as Prime Minister Narendra Modi "did not like the idea."

"I called Prime Minister Modi and said that do you mind if I make it after the election (US presidential polls) and he was not happy. He did not like the idea. I guess, he had already put the signs out," said the US President in a speech at a dinner banquet hosted in his honour by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Taking about his experience at the maiden India visit as the US President, he said: "We had a tremendous two days and I am not including the 18 hours that we flew. That wasn't even bad because I was coming to the place I like very much. You know I have been to India before, not as President but I have been to India and I will be back hopefully many times."

"I feel so comfortable that they gave my speech and I said I don't want to read the speech. Do you know what it read? It said: 'I love and I respect India.' I am sure First Lady (Melania Trump) feels the same way," he said.

Making a reference to the 'Howdy, Modi!' event in Texas last September, Trump added, "We had a great time in Texas and they still talk about that in the US."

"I must say that Texas is a big place and it is hard to beat Texas and what we saw yesterday with 1,250000 people was great. Also what they talk about is the thousands of people standing outside the stadium trying to get in" Trump said.

On the first day of his two-day trip to India, the US President had addressed 'Namaste Trump' event in Ahmedabad which was attended by over one lakh people.

The US President concluded his jam-packed maiden two-day official visit to India on Tuesday evening. During the visit, he held both restricted and delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi.