US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he was looking forward to being with his "great friends" in India next week as he retweeted a short video in which his face was superimposed on the hit movie-character Bahubali, showing the president as a great saviour bringing peace to his kingdom.
Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trump will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including First Lady Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and a galaxy of top American officials.
"Look so forward to being with my great friends INDIA!" Trump said in a tweet on Saturday.
Along with the tweet, Trump retweeted an 81-second video by a Twitter account identified as "Sol" with the handle Solmemes1.
Look so forward to being with my great friends in INDIA! https://t.co/1jdk3AW6fG
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2020
Trump appears as a warrior and a saviour in the 81-second video, riding on a chariot with Melania. A few stills later, Trump is seen riding a horse, and then carrying on his shoulders his son Trump Jr and daughter Ivanka. The video also shows hundreds of Indian villagers cheering Trump on.
Trump will land in Ahmedabad around noon on Monday and attend an event at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, which is the world’s biggest cricket stadium.
The US president will address the event along with Modi, which is titled “Kem Chho Trump [Howdy Trump].”
India is hoping to negotiate a trade deal with the US during Trump’s visit. On Thursday, Trump said proposed new Indian tariffs have complicated negotiations, but he will “talk business” with Modi.
“I’m going to India next week and we’re talking trade,” Trump said at a rally in Colorado. “They’ve been hitting us very hard for many, many years but I really like Prime Minister Modi.”
The United States president is also likely to discuss religious freedom with India during his visit.
“President Trump will talk about our shared tradition of democracy and religious freedom both in his public remarks and then certainly in private,” an unidentified senior official at the White House said on Saturday.