Indian diplomat compares Ivanka Trump to ‘half-wit Saudi princes’

“It’s in our national interest to flatter [Ivanka Trump and the Saudi princes],” an unnamed diplomat tells an Indian editor.

It appears Indian diplomats are no fans of Ivanka Trump.

A well-known Indian editor quoted an unnamed Indian diplomat as saying that Indians regard Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump and an influential White House aide, “the way we do half-wit Saudi princes.”

Bobby Ghosh, Editor-in-Chief of the influential newspaper Hindustan Times, tweeted Friday: “India diplomat tells me: “We regard @IvankaTrump the way we do half-wit Saudi princes. It’s in our national interest to flatter them.”

India diplomat tells me: "We regard @IvankaTrump the way we do half-wit Saudi princes. It's in our national interest to flatter them."

— Bobby Ghosh (@ghoshworld) August 11, 2017

In the same thread, Ghosh said. in response to a comment, that the diplomat in question is a senior official “with extensive experience in the US.”

Worse yet, this comes from a senior Indian diplomat with extensive experience in the US.

— Bobby Ghosh (@ghoshworld) August 11, 2017

It is worth noting that the unidentified diplomat was not speaking in first person. He could have been referring to the Indian establishment as a whole, or at least a section of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Ghosh, a former World Editor of the Times Magazine, did not elaborate in what context of the diplomat made the remark. However, it is safe to assume that it may have been in the context of the first daughter’s scheduled visit to India in November to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

President Trump announced at his joint press conference on June 26 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his daughter would visit India on the invitation of the Indian leader. “To further our economic partnership, I’m excited to report that the Prime Minister has invited my daughter, Ivanka, to lead the U.S. delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India this fall,” he said at the Rose Garden news event. “And I believe she has accepted.”

Ghosh’s tweet, in which Ivanka Trump was tagged, might now put the Indian government in awkward position. It is not sure how the US president, who is notorious for losing temper over slights, real and imagined, will react if he sees the tweet.

It is possible that he might redirect his “fire and fury” away from North Korea to India’s direction. It is also likely that the much publicized trip — which incidentally was perhaps the most newsworthy statement made at the maiden Trump-Modi press conference — might even be canceled.