President or Luxury Towers: Either Way, Trump Is the Rage in India
GURGAON, India — When the Trump family jet lands in India this week, the family member taking a tour of the world’s
largest democracy — with a Secret Service detail in tow — won’t be the president on a diplomatic mission.
“The idea that the president’s son would be going and shilling the president’s brand at same time Donald Trump is president and is managing strategic and foreign relations with India —
that is just bizarre,” said Daniel S. Markey, who helped coordinate South Asia policy at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration.
This is a big brand, the president of the United States’ name will be on it.”
Donald Trump Jr., in an interview in New York last week, said
that he had spent nearly a decade “cultivating relationships in India” and that the company was “now seeing the response of that effort.” To that point, the newspaper advertisements in India featured large photographs of him, arms crossed and staring into the camera.
“Everyone in India knows who the U. S. president is,” Mr. Bansal said.
“It is by having these business entanglements, does it create incentives
and opportunities for people in the Indian government to try to use the business relations to impact American policy.”
The Trump family’s financial interests in India could also call into question
the president’s objectivity in dealing with the country, Ms. Teachout said
The younger Mr. Trump’s visit this week is expected to reinforce
that trend, they said, even as many other luxury housing towers have hundreds of empty units.
