US President Donald Trump on Monday shared on his social media platform Truth Social a video link of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with US-based popular podcaster and computer scientist Lex Fridman.
During the interaction lasting over three hours, Modi on Sunday said that he and Trump connected well, as both put their respective countries first. Modi asserted that this mutual trust had remained unshaken even when Trump, the Republican Party leader, was out of office during Democratic Party leader Joe Biden’s presidency.
Asked what he liked about Trump, Modi recalled that during his first term, Trump ignored security protocol and agreed to his request to take a lap around the stadium hosting the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston, America.
“I was touched by his courage and his trust in me,” said Modi, noting that Trump had shown similar courage following the assassination attempt on him during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Modi said that Trump believed in “America First”, and his own motto was “nation first” or “India first”. This similarity in spirit made them connect well, he added.
Without referring to the trade and tariff issues involving the two countries, the Indian prime minister — speaking of his recent meeting with the US president and his colleagues — noted that Trump, in his second term, seemed far more prepared with a clear roadmap and had put together a strong team.
In the podcast interview, Modi also lauded Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy and described himself as a peacemaker who had nudged both Russian and Ukrainian leaders to come to the negotiating table.
Modi also opened up on a host of foreign affairs issues and touched on various aspects of his life journey.
Fridman, who had moved to the US from Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, started his podcast in 2018. It was originally titled the ‘Artificial Intelligence Podcast’ but the name was changed to the ‘Lex Fridman Podcast’ in 2020.
Guests on his podcast have included US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
