Trump Jr speech will send mistaken message: Democratic Senator

Team Udayavani, Feb 22, 2018, 10:15 AM IST

Washington: Democratic Senator Robert has written a letter to the US Ambassador to India to ensure that, son of the US president, who is visiting India, is not given any special treatment by the diplomatic mission, except for the one required by the security.

Menendez’s wrote a letter, as he said that he was concerned about a speech tomorrow at the business summit by Donald J Trump Jr which may send a “mistaken message that he is speaking on behalf of Donald Trump”. The 40-year-old son of the US President is currently on a business trip India. He is executive vice president of the Trump Organization which is developing a number of high profile properties in various parts of the country.

“Given the potential to confuse Mr Trump’s private business visit with having an official governmental purpose, I write to ensure that the US embassy presence in India will have no role in supporting Mr Trump or the Trump Organization during his time in India, other than that necessary to provide any security support for the US Secret Service,” the New Jersey Senator said in a letter to US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster.

“I expect that the US State Department, including US Embassy Delhi, will treat Mr Trump no differently than it would any other American individual visiting on private business, and will take every effort to avoid any perception of special treatment or a conflict of interest,” he said as he listed a series of questions to Juster on the visit of the son of the US president.

The Trump Administration has said that Donald J Trump Jr is on a personal business visit to India. In his letter, Menendez also raised concerns about his scheduled speech on Indo-Pacific relations at the Global Business Summit in Delhi on Friday.

“Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and multiple government ministers will speak at the same event, I am concerned that Mr Trump’s speech will send the mistaken message that he is speaking on behalf of the President, the Administration or the United States government, not as a private individual, or that he is communicating official American policy,” Menendez said.