NEW DELHI — India's Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned a social media repost by U.S. President Donald Trump that referred to India as a "hellhole," after Trump shared the remark on his Truth Social account without comment. The remark originated from conservative radio host Michael Savage. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the remark was "obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste" and that "the comments certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests."

The original comment from Savage took aim at U.S. birthright citizenship. "A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet," Savage said. In separate remarks, he said: "There's almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case. No, they're not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors."

The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi responded with a statement. "The president has said 'India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top,'" the embassy said.

Trump has sought to restrict U.S. birthright citizenship and has repeatedly used insulting language to refer to foreign nations and immigrant communities. He recently called Somali immigrants "garbage." In 2018, he used a vulgar term to describe El Salvador, Haiti and African nations.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cordial relations during Trump's first term. India was hit last year with some of the highest U.S. tariffs, many of which were rolled back this year. The two countries are working on a trade deal aimed at preventing renewed tariff increases and boosting bilateral sales.

Nearly 5.5 million people of Indian origin live in the U.S., according to Indian government data, which also indicates that Indian Americans and Chinese Americans are the largest groups of Asian origin in the country. China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment on the matter.