US president’s son holds ‘fireside chat’ at
business summit instead after accusations of interference
By Michael
Safi
 |
|
Donald
Trump Jr attends an event at Trump Tower in Mumbai during his
visit
to India. Photograph: AP
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A scheduled speech by Donald Trump Jr on US
foreign policy in India has been abruptly changed to a “fireside chat” hours
before the address was supposed to begin in Delhi.
The 15-minute speech was initially called
“Reshaping Indo-Pacific ties: the new era of cooperation”, but the title was
amended on the website of the business conference to remove any reference to a
topic.
Trump Jr was interviewed instead by the
journalist Supriya Shrinate about his experiences as the son of the US
president and his views on India’s business culture.
Ethics watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers had
questioned why Trump Jr, who has been , was discussing US foreign policy on
what was ostensibly a business trip by a private citizen.
The US state department and the US embassy in
Delhi have denied any involvement in the speech or knowledge of its contents.
Organisers of the business summit, which was
also addressed by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and several cabinet
ministers, did not respond to questions about why the topic and format of
Trump’s appearance had been changed.
Trump Jr told the audience of about 2,000
people he rarely talked politics with his father any more. “We see him so
little that when we’re together it’s really about being a family,” he said.
Asked about corruption in India, his response
– “There’s an entrepreneurial spirit here … that’s different to elsewhere in
the world” – drew laughter from the crowd.
Trump stressed he was “here as a businessman,
not representing anyone”.
The New Jersey senator, Bob Menendez, said
earlier this week his visit could send the “mistaken message” that he was
speaking on behalf of the US government.
In a letter to Kenneth Juster, the new US
ambassador to India, Menendez said he expected the US state deparment and the
embassy in Delhi to “treat Mr Trump no differently than it would any other
American individual visiting on private business, and will take every effort to
avoid any perception of special treatment or a conflict of interest”.
He asked whether US officials would have any
role in a dinner hosted by Trump Jr on Friday with investors in a Trump
Organization-licensed project in Gurgaon, a city about an hour’s drive from
Delhi.
One partner in the project boasted that the
visit, announced in front-page advertisements in national newspapers, had generated
around $15m (£10.7m) in sales for the project.
At least one journalist allowed to interview
Trump Jr said they were given strict instructions that political questions were
off limits, and that minders had blocked several questions about his father.
Trump Jr spoke of his frustration at not
being able to do new business deals, a measure his father imposed to avoid
conflicts of interest, but which ethics lawyers say does not sufficiently
isolate Trump’s policy decisions from his finances.
“When we’re out of politics, I think we will
get some credit for it and will be welcomed again with open arms,” Trump Jr
said.
The Trump Organization has licensed its name
to four other projects in Gurgaon, Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Trump Jr has no official role in the Trump
administration and took the reins of the family company, with his brother Eric,
after their father was inaugurated.
