Donald Trump’s February 25, 2024 Ahmedabad speech—unlike Justin Trudeau’s divisive 2018 visit—drew 100,000+ cheering fans at Motera Stadium, with Modi personally greeting him. Trump praised India’s sixfold economic growth (lifting 270M from poverty) and democratic strength while framing U.S.-India military ties (e.g., $3B helicopter deal, "Tiger Triumph" exercises) as a bulwark against China’s "coercion." Contrasting with Canada’s far-left railway blockades—backed by figures like Sheila Gunn-Reed—his visit underscored how aligned leadership can counterbalance rising authoritarian threats. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I take you through a bunch of passages from Donald Trump's recent speech in Ahmedabad, India.
I watched the whole speech.
I really liked it.
It was a little bit quirky in a few ways.
I'll show you the parts that I liked and parts that I thought were interesting.
If you want to get the video version of this podcast, and I recommend it, there's just some great moments.
I mean, we show the video from the speech in India.
You can get that at RebelNews.com.
You can become a premium subscriber.
It's $8 a month.
And you get the video version of the podcast.
You get Sheila Gun Reed's show.
You get David Menzie's show.
And you help the Rebels stay strong.
So that's just at RebelNews.com.
Okay, here's the podcast.
Tonight, Donald Trump gets a hero's welcome in India.
And to think he didn't even have to put on a costume.
It's February 25th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government.
But why publish them?
It's because it's my bloody right to do so.
Hey, folks, we're putting our paywalled shows on YouTube just because we switched to a new website at rebelnews.com, including a new video player.
So folks have to click reset on their video password.
If you have any problems, just email us at help at rebelnews.com.
And in the meantime, you can enjoy these shows on YouTube.
To today's news, of course, the worst thing about Justin Trudeau's disastrous trip to India a couple years ago wasn't his ridiculous costumes.
I'm not calling the clothes themselves ridiculous.
I'm calling the choice by a white Canadian prime minister to wear those clothes ridiculous.
It'd be like the Prime Minister of India coming to Canada dressed as a mountie, which he is not.
It would just be weird and unserious and slightly condescending.
Of course, Trudeau is only skin deep, so he wouldn't see that.
He'd think that's what India wanted him to do, his affirmation in their costume.
He truly thought his party trick of doing a few bangra dance moves was all that India was waiting for, to be knocked off their feet and fall in love with him.
I mean, it works for all the young girls back in Canada, right?
You've got to admit, we hit new levels of cringe with Trudeau going to meet Bollywood stars who dressed, you know, normally.
But Trudeau dressed like he just raided the wardrobe department.
What a weirdo he is.
What an empty suit he is.
Funny thing, Stephen Harper never dressed up like that.
And he seemed to get along great with India's prime ministers.
In fact, he still meets up with Modi, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, from time to time as ex-prime minister, I think.
Now that's quite a feat.
It wasn't the costumes that was the worst of it for Trudeau, of course, nor was it the bizarre and slightly insulting decision by Trudeau to fly his own chef to India with him to cook Indian food in India because apparently they don't know how to cook Indian food in India.
They need a chef from Canada to show them how to do that.
What a weirdo Trudeau is.
But all of that is nothing.
That's trivia.
That's just childishness.
What was stunning and inscrutable and incredible to this day was Trudeau's decision to invite a convicted terrorist to India as an official part of his retinue, Jaspa Atwal, who was convicted of attempted murder for trying to kill an Indian cabinet minister who was on holiday in Canada.
Atwall was convicted and the judge called him a terrorist.
And I swear to God, Justin Trudeau invited him on the trip as part of his entourage.
How?
How?
No wonder the Indian government snubbed Trudeau on that visit, giving him the most perfunctory diplomatic courtesies, Modi skipping his traditional in-person airport greeting that he gives to other world leaders.
So that was Trudeau.
He screwed things up with India even worse after he got home.
If you remember, he blamed that whole terrorist thing on India, claiming they had set Trudeau up by putting Atwal in his entourage.
Yeah, follow that one if you can.
So diplomatic incident with India.
Now we got China taking Canadian hostages, diplomatic incidents there.
Now we got Trudeau giving a warm, smiling, beaming welcome to the Iranian terrorist leader who just shot down a civilian airliner, killing dozens of Canadians.
What a disaster Trudeau is.
So that's how the amateurs do it.
Isn't it funny how Trudeau and the left think they're so suave, so sophisticated, so worldly, but they can't even tie their own shoes when it comes to diplomacy.
You know, the left calls Stephen Harper and Donald Trump wild, risky cowboys when it comes to foreign policy, really?
Well, take a look at how Donald Trump was received yesterday in India.
Narendra Modi greeted the Trumps at the airport, of course.
And then thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, maybe more, lined the streets as Trump drove to the world's largest stadium with over 100,000 people waiting to hear him.
They were wearing the Indian version of the Make America Great Again hat.
Both India and America represented on the hat.
The whole event was called Namaste Trump.
Namaste being a very gracious way of saying hello.
That's a namaste.
That's what Trudeau does everywhere.
Namaste.
It's the deepest courtesy, deep respect, Namaste Trump.
It was the reciprocal greeting of the Howdy Modi, huge rally that Narendra Modi had in Texas a few months back.
I think these two guys are friends, or at least allies.
My favorite part was watching the crowd of about 125,000.
And these were Indian people from India.
They were dancing to that American song from the 70s or 80s by the village people called Macho Man while they were waiting for Trump to arrive.
Watch this.
That India plays or could play as a bulwark in a sense against Chinese influence in the region.
It's going to be substantially boosted in terms of its positive energies from this event.
That's no accident from Mr. Modi's point of view.
I've just been looking down in the center front there where I was able to stop Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump taking selfies with the crowd.
This clearly is going to be something for their families, Scrapman, a turnout.
So how was the speech itself?
Well, Modi was exceedingly generous to Trump, as he was when he was in America.
But let me play for you a few clips from what Trump himself said.
That's what I want to show you today.
I'm going to show you about 10 clips.
Some of them are extended, but I want you to see this.
Here's how we started.
Namaste.
Namuste.
And hello to India.
This is such a great honor.
Let me begin by expressing my profound gratitude to an exceptional leader, a great champion of India, a man who works night and day for his country, and a man I am proud to call my true friend, Prime Minister Modi.
The First Lady and I have just traveled 8,000 miles around the globe to deliver a message to every citizen across this nation.
America loves India.
America respects India.
And America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people.
Now, Trump goes on in a flattering vein like this for quite some time, but the crowd ate it up, I think.
Let me play a bit more, and there's a reason for this.
I'll come back to it.
I'm going to play a few minutes of it straight here.
Take a look.
Five months ago, the United States welcomed your great Prime Minister at a giant football stadium in Texas.
And today, India welcomes us at the world's largest cricket stadium right here in Ababad.
It is a profound honor to be the beautiful new stadium to be here with you, Motera Stadium, so beautiful and joined by so many distinguished guests from all across your nation and all across the world.
To the hundreds of thousands of everyday citizens who come out and line the streets in a stunning display of Indian culture and kindness.
And to the 125,000 people in this great stadium today, thank you for the spectacular welcome to your magnificent country.
You have done a great honor to the American people.
Malani and my family, we will always remember this remarkable hospitality.
We will remember it forever.
From this day on, India will always hold a very special place in our hearts.
The life of Prime Minister Modi underscores the limitless promise of this great nation.
He started out by his father's side as a chihuahua, a tea seller.
When he was a young man, he worked at a cafeteria in this city standing.
Everybody loves him, but I will tell you this, he's very tough.
Today, Prime Minister Modi is the tremendously successful leader of this vast Indian republic.
Last year, more than 600 million people went to the polls and gave him a landslide victory like no other in the largest democratic election ever held anywhere on the face of the earth.
Prime Minister Modi, you are not just the pride of Gujarat.
You are living proof that with hard work and devotion, Indians can accomplish anything, anything at all, anything they want.
The Prime Minister has a moving story of an incredible rise.
And so does this entire nation.
Your nation is doing so well.
We are very, very proud of India.
The story of the Indian nation is a tale of astounding progress, a miracle of democracy, extraordinary diversity, and above all, a strong and noble people.
India gives hope to all of humanity.
In just 70 years, India has become an economic giant, the largest democracy ever to exist, and one of the most amazing nations anywhere in the world.
Since the turn of the century, India's economy has grown more than six times in size.
In a single decade, India has lifted over 270 million people out of poverty.
All right, I showed you a lot there, but I wanted you to see how it felt.
I watched the speech broadcast live.
That flattery, that list of items to be praised went on for quite a while.
I'm not even showing you half of it.
It felt too long for me, but I can imagine for India, a country that has until so recently been so poor, a country that has so recently been at best a neutral or non-aligned country, as it used to be called,
to now be so loved by America and the American president, I can imagine it felt new and unusual and very, very good and hopeful for the most powerful man in the most powerful country to praise everything about your country at such length and with such hyperbole, the Trump style.
I can only imagine the feeling of national pride it created.
I think some of it was phrased as a subtle dig at India's great Asian rival, too.
China, I mean.
Trump is effusive quite often, we know that.
But he's also careful about what he praises.
He would never say this about China, now, would he?
India's rise as a prosperous and independent nation is an example to every nation all over the world and one of the most outstanding achievements of our century.
It is all the more inspiring because you have done it as a democratic country.
You have done it as a peaceful country.
You have done it as a tolerant country.
And you have done it as a great free country.
There is all the difference in the world between a nation that seeks power through coercion, intimidation and aggression, and a nation that rises by setting its people free and unleashing them to chase their dreams.
And that is India.
This is why India's accomplishment over the last 70 years is completely unrivaled no matter where you go.
India's Movie Hub00:02:04
It is your faith in the strength of a free society, your confidence in your own people, your trust in your own citizens, and your respect for the dignity of every person that makes the United States and India such a natural, beautiful, enduring friendship.
While our nations have many differences, they are both defined and propelled by a fundamental truth, the truth that all of us are blessed with divine light and every person is endowed with a sacred soul.
Yeah, that's pretty much a message to China and probably to Pakistan too.
I like the next part of the speech.
Trump gave shout outs to various heroes in India.
I had not heard of most of these names before.
I don't think Trump did either.
I chuckled a bit listening to Trump try to pronounce them.
The media party in the West jumped on that.
Ha ha, Trump mispronounced an obscure word that we've never heard of either, but what a buffoon he is.
Yeah, no, I think the Indians loved him for trying.
This is the country that produces nearly 2,000 movies a year from the hub of genius and creativity known as Bollywood.
All over the planet, people take great joy in scenes of Bhangra, music, dance, romance, and drama, and classic Indian films like DDLJ and ShoJay.
This is the country where your people cheer on some of the world's greatest cricket players, from Su Chin Kendol Kerr to Virot Kohli, the greatest in the world.
U.S.-India Military Cooperation00:08:01
This is the country that built the tallest statue on the face of the earth to honor the namesake of this stadium, the great Indian patriot and native of this state, Sardar Patel.
Now, Trump being Trump and him being an America firster, he spent a fair bit of time talking to the folks back home about America's booming economy, America's revitalized military, things like that.
It is an election year in America.
But then he flipped it towards India.
Just months ago, this critical partnership took a major step forward when the U.S. military and your brave Indian armed forces conducted the first ever air, land, and sea military exercises between our two countries.
It was something to behold.
We called it Tiger Triumph.
As we continue to build our defense cooperation, the United States looks forward to providing India with some of the best and most feared military equipment on the planet.
We make the greatest weapons ever made.
Airplanes, missiles, rockets, ships.
We make the best, and we're dealing now with India.
But this includes advanced air defense systems and armed and unarmed aerial vehicles.
And I am pleased to announce that tomorrow our representatives will sign deals to sell over $3 billion in the absolute finest state-of-the-art military helicopters and other equipment to the Indian Armed Forces.
I believe that the United States should be India's premier defense partner, and that's the way it's working out.
Together, we will defend our sovereignty, security, and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region for our children and for many, many generations to come.
Now, that's new.
I didn't know how intertwined India and the U.S. were militarily, did you?
I didn't know how large the joint military drills were between America and India.
I didn't know.
I didn't actually know that America was the biggest export market for India either.
Maybe I should have guessed.
But the emphasis on military unity here was quite striking.
That's a message to America's traditional allies in NATO, isn't it, in a way?
And to China and to Pakistan.
Get a load of this line and the instant applause for it.
The United States and India are also firmly united in our ironclad resolve to defend our citizens from the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.
Both of our countries have been hurt by the pain and turmoil of terrorism and that terrorism brings.
Under my administration, we unleashed the full power of the American military on bloodthirsty killers of ISIS in Iraq and in Syria.
Today, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100% destroyed and the monster known as Al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of ISIS, is dead.
In the United States, we have also made clear that while our country will always welcome newcomers who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terrorists and terrorism and to any form of extremism.
Trump went on a bit more, but then, and I'd have to check the clock, but he had been praising India non-stop and full tilt.
Well, now he pivoted a bit.
Listen to this.
For this reason, since taking office, my administration is working in a very positive way with Pakistan to crack down on the terrorist organizations and militants that operate on the Pakistani border.
Our relationship with Pakistan is a very good one.
Thanks to these efforts, we are beginning to see signs of big progress with Pakistan.
And we are hopeful for reduced tensions, greater stability, and the future of harmony for all of the nations of South Asia.
India has an important leadership role to play in shaping a better future as you take on greater responsibility for solving problems and promoting peace throughout this incredible region.
I don't know what they'd think of that in India.
I don't know.
Trump's saying that he can make peace, he can bargain with Pakistan.
Remember, that's the country that hid Osama bin Laden, that supported the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
But I suppose Trump, the dealmaker, wants to try.
Now, this part caught me a bit by surprise, but again, Trump is triangulating against China.
The United States and India are also working closely together on the future of space exploration.
You are making impressive strides with your exciting Chandra Jan lunar program.
It is moving along rapidly, far ahead of schedule, and America looks forward to expanding our space cooperation with India as you push even further.
You are pushing the limits, and that's a great thing, including in the realm of human spaceflight.
The United States and India will be friends and partners on our voyage into the stars and into space.
I won't play any more of the speech for you.
I've kept you long enough, but it was quite something.
He talked about trade deals and other things, and I like how he ended.
Thank you again, Prime Minister Modi, for your hospitality, and thank you, India, for this phenomenal welcome.
I want to just leave by saying, God bless India.
God bless United States of America.
We love you.
We love you, India, very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's nice.
Trump and Melania then went on to the Taj Mahal.
Trump dressed in a suit like he would in America.
Melania wearing a dress with a green sash of some sort.
A bit of an Indian flavor, I guess, but not a costume.
They kept their dignity, which is much more than the Trudeau's did on their disastrous vacation.
So what does this mean?
I think it means a few things.
That while the mainstream media has been obsessed with the fake news about Russian collusion or whatever it is this week, Trump has actually been working on things, big things, important things, strategic things, president things.
That genuine warmth, the total harmony between Modi and Trump, I think it might help reshape the world.
While the Democrats are looking at praising a discredited communist dictator.
We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba.
But you know, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad.
You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did?
He had a massive literacy program.
Yeah, I think America's lucky to have a leader like Trump.
Would you trade him for Trudeau?
Stay with us for more.
Zach's Protest Blockade00:10:04
Instead of my usual interview at this point of the show, I'd like to show you a video that Sheila Gunn-Reed recorded a couple days ago.
As you know, there have been railway blockades across Canada, and the RCMP have done next to nothing.
Well, some Alberta boys decided to clear the blockade, and it turned into quite a thing.
Here, take a look at Sheila Gunn Reed's video.
Today I'm introducing you to another rail line blockade buster.
His name is Zach Solomon Lamaru, and he needs our help now.
When lawless, far-left-wing radicals tried to bring their nationwide railway-blocking protests to Alberta as part of their ongoing plan to shut down Canada, they were the ones being shut down by severely normal Alberta men.
The protesters say they are in solidarity with the Wetsuetan people against the Coastal Gaslink natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.
However, the Wet's Weten elected band council and eight of 13 hereditary chiefs all support the prosperity and jobs the pipeline offers to their community.
These blockaders are just radical environmentalist interlopers inserting themselves into other people's lives.
Now, just eight hours into the protest west of Edmonton, normal Alberta men had had enough and showed up to politely and peacefully pull the blockade down.
And since then, it has been my mission over the past few days to track down each and every one of them and thank them personally, offer them a tiny token of our gratitude for standing up for the rule of law when no one else will in the form of a case of beer of their choosing.
We met and thanked Chase Chomey yesterday.
Today you're going to meet another one of the men we identified.
I'd like to introduce all of you at home to, I guess, an everyday hero.
This is Zachary Solomon Lamaro and he was one of the rail line blockade busters, right?
Yep.
Why did you go down there?
I mean, I've talked to a couple other guys and it wasn't, it wasn't an organized thing.
I think none of you actually knew each other.
No, none of us knew each other at all.
It was just a heat of the moment thing.
I saw Guy Simpson go and start taking stuff down and starting to bring it over to his truck.
And then my manager, he offered to let him use our dump trailer and I went to go start spotting him, guiding him back so that he wouldn't hit any of the vehicles that were sitting on the sides of the road.
And then after that, I just decided to jump right in and help.
There's nothing more that I could have thought to do.
It was just, you know, if no one else is going to do it, I might as well have.
So why did you go down to the rail blockade?
What compelled you to just head down there?
I just wanted to see what was going on because I noticed that as the hours were going on, it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more people were coming.
You guys aren't even from Alberta.
You no more on the road.
I saw it at like eight o'clock in the morning the day that it happened and I made a big post about it just to show my friends and let everyone know that, hey, if you're coming down this way, there's a blockade going on.
I don't know if they're going to start blocking the roads.
And then, yeah, I just went and just wanted to watch and see what was going to happen.
Do you think they were in it for the long haul?
I think after we started actually trying to tear stuff down, I think they lost all hope.
Not trying to sound mean, but like I think they knew that they weren't going to be there for long.
Yeah, we're in an industrial park and the rail line where they blockaded is by an industrial park and that's probably the closest to manual labor those people have ever been in a long time.
Something else happened to you though because the mainstream media has said that this is just a bunch of you know peaceful flower children blockading a rail line.
But it wasn't quite like that for you was it?
No so I started dismantling the blockade and a couple of the protesters had actually gone and climbed into the dump trailer and they started throwing stuff back out of it and I went to go climb onto it and start putting some stuff back in it and one of the protesters took a big board, shoved it in my neck and threw me off the trailer.
Did the police do anything when these protesters were jumping in the dump trailer?
No, they did not.
They just sat in their vehicles and watched.
It looked like from that global news footage that things could escalate if you guys weren't in control of your faculties and it looks like you guys were.
I mean you removed garbage in about the most Canadian way ever.
Please thank you.
Excuse me.
I mean if you guys were the out of control redneck hillbillies that the media likes to paint you guys are things could have got a little western out there.
I agree completely with that.
Like I'm not a very violent person.
I am not.
I do get angry.
I did yell at a couple of the protesters because they were yelling at me, but what you give is what you get.
I never laid hands on any of them.
I tried to talk as peacefully as I could.
I tried to avoid every single confrontation that I could, and I just wanted to get the garbage out of there.
If you give us a viable option for an alternative to oil and gas that puts out the same gigajoule output as oil and gas, then we will listen to what you have to say.
Well, Zach, I have a small token of appreciation for you from a grateful nation, a grateful province, all the farmers who can't move their grain right now because of the rail blockades, the VRA commuters that can't get home, all the thousands of rail line workers who are laid off, and just normal people who care deeply about the rule of law.
I said that I would personally deliver a case of beer to everybody involved in the rail line blockade bus stop.
Here's your 15-pack of Miller Genuine Draft, not sponsored by Miller Genuine Draft, not opposed to a sponsorship by Miller Genuine Draft.
It's just a small token of appreciation.
I'm sure each one of those cans represents thousands of people who wish they could have done what you did.
And here's hoping that the rest of the country is sort of inspired by what you guys did.
And we're going to see what we can do to get you some justice.
The police didn't want to help you, so we're going to.
And Zach, just thank you.
Thank you so much for taking the time and coming to talk to me.
Thank you for putting this out on the air for all of us.
And, you know, I hope that I put an image in the rest of Canada that we're not going to be stopped by just a couple of people sitting on our railroad tracks.
Get up, take the 10 minutes, even if it's just complete strangers, go up, take your time, start cleaning it.
We need to save this country.
What a decent guy with a good message and an even better attitude.
Zach was assaulted on camera.
Global News captured it in their footage.
They even aired it on the news that night.
And yet Global News and the mainstream media still contend that these rail line blockaders are just perfectly peaceful hippies with a cause.
Even with the assault caught on camera, the police refused to help or even tried to identify the person who assaulted Zach just meters from where they were sitting in their cars.
Well, that's not good enough.
Zach helped Canadians by standing up for the rule of law, and now it's time for us to help Zach.
So here's what we're going to do.
Anyone nonviolent who is arrested by police for removing a blockade will receive free civil liberties lawyers from us here at Rebel News.
You saw how Zach and Guy Simpson and Chase took out the trash.
They were calm, polite, and peaceful in the face of abuse and violence.
Replicate that.
And if the police arrest you for upholding the law when they refuse to, we've got your back.
And we'll deliver or ship a case of beer to all the heroes we can identify.
I'll hand deliver it in every instance where that's possible because I want to be the one to personally thank every single person involved in doing the right thing by the entire country.
And in this case, we're going to step up and help Zach because the cops were apparently too busy to do so.
We're going to pursue a civil lawsuit to get justice for Zach, just like we did against Deion Bewes when he hit me and the courts let me down and didn't include me in the process.
So here's where we need your help to do all of this.
First, help us find the masked thug that shoved a plywood sign into Zach's neck and assaulted him on camera.
If you have information that leads to the positive identification of the thug who assaulted Zach, we will give you $1,000.
So if you've got information on the identity of that violent masked coward, please send it to tips at rebelnews.com and we will keep it confidential.
And if you'd like to help us draw a line in the sand and set a marker down for the rest of these rail line blockaders, these violent hooligans, that if you put your hands on people who show up peacefully and politely to uphold the rule of law in this country and clear trash off the tracks, you're going to be in for a rough ride, even if the police don't want to charge you.
If you can chip in to cover the legal costs to help us help Zach, please go to cleartheblockades.com.
That's cleartheblockades.com.
Lawsuits are expensive, but we think it's so important to send a message, not just to the handsy, unruly ragamuffins blocking train tracks across the country, but also to officials who refuse to do something about it when the tracks are blocked or when someone like Zach is assaulted.
And of course, we'll pay for the beer ourselves.
Now, I learned a lesson too from guys like Zach, Guy Simpson, and Chase.
If officials don't act, then we must.
For Rebel News, I'm Sheila Gunnery.
Trump's Quick Visit Feels Like a Rally00:00:51
What do you think of Trump visiting Modi?
It was a pretty quick trip, and it certainly felt like a pep rally for both sides.
But I think that only comes with a genuine harmony between two men.
Whatever you think of Reagan or Mulroney, those two men really got along, and I think it benefited both countries tremendously.
It's possible to have good relations between countries if the leaders don't quite jibe.
I mean, Stephen Harper and Barack Obama were pretty much opposite in every way, but they kept it together more or less.
I think this could be quite something for America and for India.
And given how China and Russia are towards the West, I think it's good news that India is becoming a true Western ally, don't you?