Trump fans chanted for Robert Kennedy Jr at victory speech, not Indian PM

Published on November 9, 2024 at 08:57
Updated on November 9, 2024 at 09:00
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

After Donald Trump scored a decisive win in the US presidential election, a clip from his victory speech gained traction in social media posts in India that falsely claimed his supporters chanted the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several politicians from Modi's party amplified the claim in an apparent nod to the warm relations between him and Trump. However, the crowd did not shout "Modi" but "Bobby" -- the nickname of Trump ally Robert Kennedy Jr.

"Modi's dominance in Trump's country," read a Hindi-language X post from November 6 that racked up more than 900,000 views.

It included a video of Trump declaring his win on election night before a crowd of supporters in Florida.

Text overlay reads: "Crowd chants 'Modi-Modi" during the victory speech by Donald John Trump".

Screenshot of the false post taken November 8, 2024

Modi congratulated Trump on his "historic election victory" and said he was looking forward to working with the Republican leader (archived link).

Trump and Hindu-nationalist Modi enjoy warm relations, and Trump has a sizable following among right-wing groups in India, who see him as a kindred spirit aligned with their hostility towards Muslims.

Trump had earlier said about the Indian leader: "On the outside he looks like he's your father. He's the nicest. Total killer."

A string of politicians from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shared the false claim, including Jitu Jirati, the party's vice-president in Madhya Pradesh state, Sandeep Sharma, member of the state legislative assembly (MLA) for Rajasthan and Bhagaban Das, MLA for Tripura.

'Bobby! Bobby!'

A keyword search on Google found the full version of Trump's speech livestreamed on YouTube by American public broadcaster PBS Newshour on November 6 (archived link).

The clip shared in false posts can be found from the 7:52:22 mark of the livestream.

An AFP journalist watched the full speech and found Trump was actually talking about Robert Kennedy Jr and the crowd chanted the latter's nickname "Bobby".

Trump said: "So I just want to say on behalf of this great group of the people. These are hardworking people. These are fantastic people, and we can add a few names like Robert F. Kennedy Jr."

He added: "And he is going to help make America healthy again." It was at this point that supporters chanted "Bobby! Bobby!"

Trump referred to Kennedy as "Bobby" at least three times during this segment of his speech.

The nephew of former president John F. Kennedy has been promised a "big role" by Trump after ending his own candidacy to endorse the Republican. Trump has teased wide-ranging roles for RFK, including allowing him to "go wild on health" (archived link).

Trump did not mention Modi's name in the speech.

AFP has repeatedly fact-checked vaccination claims from the advocacy group headed by Kennedy.