President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump visited the Taj Mahal, the ivory-white marble mausoleum known as one of the world’s most iconic symbols of love, as well as Sabarmati Ashram, the former abode of Mahatma Gandhi, on Feb. 24 during their two-day state visit to India.
“The Taj Mahal inspires awe, a timeless testament to the rich and diverse beauty of Indian Culture!” Trump wrote in the monument’s visitor’s book.
The president began his first visit to India on Monday, starting by addressing over 100,000 people at the city of Ahmedabad’s newly constructed cricket stadium, the world’s largest, which he also inaugurated.
According to travel reports released by the White House, the president and the first lady traveled through the massive gardens leading to the mausoleum in a golf cart motorcade and then “walked together to the mausoleum which they visited while the pool stayed behind.”
Trump is the ninth U.S. President to visit India. President Barack Obama visited it in 2015 and George W. Bush did so in 2006.
As Trump walked back to the gate of the Taj Mahal he said, “Really incredible, an incredible place.”
Earlier during the day, after addressing the people in the crowded stadium, the president and the first lady visited Sabarmati Ashram, the former abode of Mahatma Gandhi.
According to the White House travel reports, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen explaining to the President and the first lady how to use a traditional spinning wheel used by Gandhi.
Trump thanked Modi for his visit to the Sabarmati Ashram. “To my great friends, Prime Minister Modi, thank you for this wonderful visit!”
Modi later shared a few pictures on Twitter of the Trumps’ visit to the Ashram with the message, “The path and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi are not only globally popular but also very relevant in today’s times.”
Aparna Pande, research fellow and director of the India Initiative at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that Mahatma Gandhi is the most recognizable Indian to Americans.
“When most Americans think of India, they think of Mahatma Gandhi because in 1930, Time Magazine had named Mahatma Gandhi Man of the Year,” said Pande. “For most Americans India is a land of Gandhi and for a large number of Americans it also ties into their own civil rights movement with Martin Luther King.”
She noted that when last year Modi addressed a crowd of over 50,000 Indian-Americans in Houston, many of the speakers also talked about Gandhi.
