'Looks Like An Angel, But He's A Killer': Trump's Strange Tribute To Modi As The Two Meet After 16 Months At G7

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met face-to-face on Wednesday for the first time in sixteen months , on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains , a meeting that mixed personal warmth, hard questions on trade, and an unresolved reckoning over the deaths of three Indian sailors in US military strikes.

The day began at the G7 outreach session, where Modi told the assembled leaders, including Trump, that "it is our responsibility to ensure the safety of the seafarers who connect all nations through global maritime trade," adding that " maritime routes must remain secure and seafarers must be able to perform their duties without fear." The remarks came days after three Indian mariners, Patnala Suresh , Shivanand Chaurasiya and Aditya Sharma , were killed when US forces struck the Palau-flagged tanker MT Settebello in the Gulf of Oman . Modi noted that disruptions to trade through the Strait of Hormuz had hurt the global economy and that "several Indian civilians have also lost their lives," while welcoming progress in West Asia peace efforts and stressing that lasting solutions could only come through "dialogue, diplomacy and international cooperation."

Later in the day, at their bilateral meeting, Trump turned to a different register entirely. Holding hands with Modi for the cameras, he told reporters: " He's the most beautiful-looking man. He looks so nice, almost like an angel, but in reality, he's as tough as a killer. " It came moments after Trump had been asked about the state of India-US trade talks. "Very close," he said. "We have been there for a little while. He is a very tough negotiator. One of the toughest." It was not the first time Trump has reached for the "killer" label for Modi, at the APEC summit in South Korea last October, he called Modi "the nicest looking guy" who is nonetheless "a killer, tough as hell," referencing India's brief military confrontation with Pakistan last May.

Trump made similarly effusive remarks the same day about Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi , recalling that the two had "fallen deeply in love" when they first met before the 2016 US election, underscoring a familiar Trump habit of folding personal flattery into blunt assessments of a leader's toughness.

Beneath the lighter moments, the meeting carried real weight. Modi raised the sailors' deaths directly with Trump, a subject on which he himself had stayed conspicuously silent at home for days, even as the opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi , branded him a " compromised PM " for not speaking publicly while India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned the US chargé d'affaires twice to register protest. Trump, for his part, reportedly told Modi he would resume bombing Iran if Tehran failed to comply with the terms of his proposed ceasefire memorandum. The two leaders also discussed the broader India-US trade negotiations, including the COMPACT framework's Mission 500 target of doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 , and defence cooperation within the Indo-Pacific.