President Trump would be the first to tell you: He and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite some economic friction between their countries, share a warm personal friendship. And Modi, as Trump’s friend, evidently knows just how to greet the U.S. president when he drops in for a visit — with throngs of adoring fans.
Shortly after touchdown in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the prime minister’s home state of Gujarat, Trump is heading to a rally at the massive Sardar Patel Stadium. Billed as the largest cricket stadium in the world, the newly renovated facility is hosting a party that also happens to bear the president’s name: “Namaste Trump,” a nod to the similarly gargantuan “Howdy Modi” fete for the prime minister last fall at Houston’s NRG Stadium.
For all the physical enormity of the event, though, expectations of Trump’s two-day visit remain modest — even from Trump himself. The president has carefully downplayed the prospect of a major trade deal anytime soon.
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