One key element distinguishes the world’s largest democracy from other emerging markets, according to Donald Trump Jr., the American president’s eldest son.
“Honestly for me, there’s something about the spirit of the Indian people that’s unique here to other parts of the emerging world,” he told CNBC’s Indian partner TV18 on Tuesday during a business trip to the country. “You go through a town, and I don’t mean to be glib about it, but you can see the poorest of the poor and there’s still a smile on a face.”
“It’s a different spirit that you don’t see in other parts of the world where people walk around so solemn … that spirit speaks to the future potential of what this country can do.”
Trump Jr., who leads the Trump Organization conglomerate alongside brother Eric Trump, was in the Indian capital to review the company’s property portfolio, according to TV18.
The 40 year-old, who said he’s been coming to the South Asian state since his late 20s, said it was Trump Organization’s largest international market outside the U.S. by number of projects.
“I have great confidence in the market,” he said.
Trump said he intends to get back into Indian property and ink new deals once his father’s term is done, noting that India has “no shortage of new business we could do.”
President Donald Trump, who previously ran his family’s namesake real-estate firm, has come under fire from ethics experts for failing to fully liquidate his global business holdings. That, critics say, represents a conflict of interest and gives the appearance of Trump profiting from the presidency.
Trump Jr. dismissed those claims on Tuesday, calling them “nonsense.”
Expressing frustration about having to pause business development during his father’s term, Trump Jr. described it as “an understandable opportunity cost,” claiming his family didn’t get credit for “for doing the right thing.”
