Trump's dinner for Modi, a first for a visiting leader

PTI, Rediff.com ^ | Saturday, June 24, 2017 | Lalit K. Jha

[cold start]

"I think the two will get along quite well. The U.S. establishment media likes to ridicule Trump for his constant tweets but Narendra Modi also tweets quite a bit. "

Not only that, Modi is famously known not to like the left leaning press but how he goes about it is different. Modi completely ignores the press and uses social media to bypass them and speak directly to his audience. The press have little choice but to report whatever comes out since that is pretty much all they will get from Modi.

There are parallels between how Modi & Trump view the press. Modi has also used a variation of Trump's "Fake news", simply referring dismissively to some journalists as "news traders". The key difference is that Modi never gets involved in any argument with individuals, that he leaves to his ministers or party reps. Maybe President Trump might have been better served doing the same.

[cold start]

To add to my post, you can see a key difference between this visit & others that President Trump has hosted - No Press conference. All the press will get is a reading of statements from the two leaders but there wont be any questions taken. It is very likely that this was a suggestion from the Indian side who know that the media (both American & Indian) will likely want to stroke controversy by lobbing provocative questions, especially at President Trump.This way, they simply won't get that chance.

[Albion Wilde]

It is Don’s artful grace. Everyone he meets with feels special. Morsi. Xi. SA’s King. Netanyahu. Now Modi.

Even King Salman.

"Artful grace"—I love how you put that. It is so true of Trump, the king of hospitality. For whatever reason, it put me in mind of the third debate, when he said "Hillary has hate in her heart." That moment should go down in Republican history.