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You’d think becoming the front-runner by a ‘yuge’ margin in the US Presidential Race, after the recently concluded New York Primary, Republican candidate Donald Trump would at least now proceed to remove his foot from his mouth. At a campaign rally in Wilmington, Delaware, Trump told his supporters that he once called a credit card customer service number, just to check if Indians were really on the other end of the call. He then re-staged the phone conversation, complete with a stereotypical Indian accent.
“You want to find out about your credit card, guess what, you’re talking to a person from India,” he said, talking about American jobs being outsourced to other countries. He wondered out loud, “How the hell does that work?”
Once on the phone, Trump narrated his conversation, “I said to the person, ‘Where are you from? I wasn’t really checking on my card. I was actually finding out if this was true.”
Then, he delivered his punchline, seemingly imitating the call centre employee in a laughable mock Indian accent: “We are from India.” He then pretended to hang up the phone abruptly.
Delaware is the hub for America’s credit-card industry, making Trump’s speech politically very astute, and yet in bad taste.
“The manufacturing jobs are being stolen. Our jobs are being taken. We are losing at every front. There is nothing good. Our country does not win anymore. The jobs are being stripped. Factories are closing. We are not going to let this happen anymore,” he said.
The New York billionaire has in the past made offensive statements about women, Mexicans, Muslims and several other groups, and routinely faces flak for it. Yet, he seems undeterred.
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Published: 25 Apr 2016,09:16 AM IST