Mega rally welcomes Trump to India

Pageantry masks countries' inability to overcome escalating trade tensions

AHMEDABAD, INDIA－India poured on the pageantry with a joyful, colorful welcome for US President Donald Trump who on Monday kicked off a whirlwind 36-hour visit that emphasizes pageantry over policy and featured a mega rally to reaffirm US-India ties while providing enviable overseas imagery for a president in a reelection year.

After Air Force One touched down in Ahmedabad in western India, Trump's motorcade slowly drove down streets lined with hundreds of thousands of onlookers. He began that day's high-wattage trio of presidential photo-ops: A visit to a former home of independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, a rally at the world's largest cricket stadium and a trip to the famed Taj Mahal.

Dancers in traditional attire, dancers and drummers lined the red carpet rolled out at the stairs of the presidential aircraft as Trump basked in the raucous reception that has eluded him on many foreign trips, some of which have featured massive protests and icy handshakes from world leaders. In India, he instead received a warm embrace－literally－from the hug-loving Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The sun-baked city of Ahmedabad bustled as Trump arrived, as the streets teemed with people eager to catch a glimpse of the US president. Newly cleaned roads and planted flowers dotted the roads amid hundreds of billboards featuring the US president and first lady Melania Trump.

His first stop was Gandhi's home, where Trump donned a prayer shawl and took off his shoes to create the incongruous image of a grandiose president quietly walking through the humble ashram. He inspected the loom used by the famed pacifist and looked at statues of monkeys representing Gandhi's mantra of "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" before departing for a far more boisterous setting: The mega-rally at the giant cricket stadium.

Tight security, new wall

Trump's motorcade traveled amid cheers from a battery of carefully picked and vetted Modi loyalists and workers from his Bharatiya Janata Party who stood for hours alongside the neatly manicured 22-kilometer stretch of road to accord the president a grand welcome on his way to the newly constructed stadium. Tens of thousands of police officers were on hand to keep security tight and a new wall has come up in front of a slum, apparently to hide it from presidential passersby.

On the way to the stadium, Trump's motorcade crossed over a river where a barge was emblazoned with "TRUMP" and onlookers chanted "Modi!"

The stadium was packed with revelers, many of whom sported Trump and Modi masks, as they sat and listened to both traditional and pop Indian music ahead of the leaders' arrival. The "Namaste Trump" rally was, in a way, the back half of home-and-home events for Modi and Trump who attended a "Howdy Modi" rally in Houston last year that drew 50,000 people.

Images of US presidents being feted on the world stage stand in contrast to those of their rivals in the opposing party slogging through diners in early-voting states and clashing in debates. This trip, in particular, reflects a Trump campaign strategy to showcase him in his presidential role during short, carefully managed trips that provide counterprogramming to the Democrats' primary contest and produce the kinds of visuals his campaign can use in future ads. His aides also believe the visit could help the president woo tens of thousands of Indian-American voters before the November election.

The visit also comes at a crucial moment for Modi, who has presided over a steep economic downturn and unfulfilled campaign promises about job creation.

The president on Tuesday will conclude his whirlwind visit to India with a day in the capital, complete with gala dinner meetings with Modi over stalled trade talks between the two nations. The two nations are closely allied, but trade tensions between them have escalated since the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from India. India responded with higher penalties on agricultural goods and restrictions on US medical devices. The US retaliated by removing India from a decades-old preferential trade program.

AGENCIES - XINHUA