US President Donald Trump has once again raised concerns about the United States’ decision to allocate $21 million for voter turnout efforts in India, drawing a comparison to the controversy over foreign interference in American elections. Speaking at the FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami, Florida, Trump questioned the need for such a significant investment in a foreign country’s election processes.
“21 million dollars for voter turnout—why do we need to spend 21 million for voter turnout in India? I guess they were trying to get somebody else elected,” Trump stated. “We’ve got to tell the Indian government… When we hear that Russia spent about two thousand dollars in our country, it was a big deal. They took some internet ads for two thousand dollars. This is a total breakthrough.”
Trump also pointed out India’s strong economic position and high tariffs on US goods, saying, “They’ve got a lot of money. They’re one of the highest taxing countries in the world when it comes to us. We can hardly get in there because their tariffs are so high.”
While maintaining his respect for India and its Prime Minister, Trump questioned the rationale behind spending millions on voter turnout in India. “I have a lot of respect for India. I have a lot of respect for the prime minister. But we’re giving $21 million for voter turnout in India. What about voter turnout here? Oh, we’ve done that, I guess. We did $500 million, didn’t we? It’s called the lockboxes.”
Earlier in the day, Trump also discussed the ongoing war in Ukraine, accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of persuading the United States to invest billions in a war he deemed unwinnable. Trump claimed that the US had spent significantly more than Europe with no returns, saying, “The United States has spent $200 billion more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back.”
Trump took to Truth Social to criticize Zelenskyy further, accusing him of poor governance and a refusal to hold elections. “Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’ He refuses to have elections, is very low in Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” Trump wrote.