Marco Rubio was caught off guard when confronted about racist remarks made against Indians in the US during his visit to the South Asian country to reset fraying ties.
During a joint press conference involving the US secretary of state in New Delhi on Sunday, a reporter appears to have indirectly raised president Donald Trump’s endorsement of an American podcaster’s remarks describing India as a “hellhole”.
Mr Trump had shared the “hellhole” remark on his Truth Social platform, prompting India’s government to denounce it as inappropriate and “in poor taste”.
“We have a lot of racist comments coming from the United States against Indians, Indian Americans. This goes against the basic premise of the India-US relationship. What’s your take on that?” Mr Rubio was asked during the press conference after his talks with Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar.
“Who made those comments?” Mr Rubio asked. “Which ones?”
The Indian reporter responded that the comments were “pretty well known” and that “we have seen endorsement of those comments”, without specifying what he was referring to.
Mr Rubio then offered a general answer saying that there were stupid people everywhere. “I don’t know how to address that but I’ll take that very seriously, about the comments,” he said.
“I’m sure that there are people who have made comments online and in other places because every country in the world has stupid people,” he added. “I’m sure there are stupid people here. There are stupid people in the United States who make dumb comments all the time.”
“Our nation has been enriched by people who have come to our country from all over the world, become Americans, assimilated into our way of life, and contributed greatly.”
Mr Rubio is on a four-day visit to India during which he’s expected to attend a meeting of the Quad, a strategic grouping of the US, India, Japan, and Australia, on Tuesday.
The secretary met prime minister Narendra Modi over the weekend and attended a gala reception in Delhi marking the 250th anniversary of America’s independence.
Mr Rubio also attended an early birthday celebration on the sidelines of the gala reception at Bharat Mandapam where American disco group Village People sang him “happy birthday” before performing their hit song YMCA. Mr Rubio, who turns 55 on 28 May, was presented with a cake during the event hosted by US ambassador Sergio Gor.
In the course of the celebration, Mr Gor made a surprise call to Mr Trump, who told the gathering over speakerphone: “I love India.”
“I love the prime minister. Modi is great. He’s my friend, and I just want to say a very, very good evening to everybody this morning here, and this evening there.” the president continued. “And I just want to say, you’re great. We’ve never been closer to India, and India can count on me 100% and our country.”
“If they ever need help, they know who they call. They call right here. We’re doing well. We’re setting records. We have a record economy, a record stock market, and anything India wants again. And I’m a big, big fan of prime minister Modi.”
Mr Rubio’s visit and Mr Trump’s remarks come as the US and India seek to mend relations strained by the president’s damaging comments about the South Asian nation, his tariff and immigration policies, and Washington’s growing closeness with rival Pakistan.
Bilateral ties deteriorated sharply after Mr Modi downplayed Mr Trump’s role in brokering a ceasefire to end the four-day India-Pakistan military conflict in April last year.
Pakistan, on the other hand, openly hailed Mr Trump and even advocated for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Then came economic tensions as the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs on India, including as punishment for buying discounted Russian oil.
On Saturday, Mr Rubio invited Mr Modi to visit the White House as the two nations “agreed to deepen trade and defence cooperation and accelerate collaboration on critical and emerging technologies”. Mr Modi last visited the US in February 2025.
Mr Rubio stressed the Trump administration’s trade policies were designed with a global perspective to serve the US economy rather than targeted at India.
“There virtually is no country in the world that I could travel to that isn’t going to raise the issue of trade because we did this from a global perspective,” he said.
