“Abki baar, Trump sarkaar!” (“This time, Trump government!”), the candidate announced in Hindi in his televised Diwali greeting to Indian-Americans, borrowing from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's own campaign slogan. He also gave a fifteen-minute address before thousands at a Hindu-American rally, in which he declared himself to be a “big, big fan of India”, gushing with admiration for the world's largest democracy and the contribution Indians, the ethnicity with the highest rate of college-graduation and entrepreneurship in the US, have made to his country. India and the US were “natural allies” that he wants to become “best friends”: “There won't be any relationship more important to us,” he promised.

The interesting point about all this is how electorally useless it was. Indians constitute 0.6 per cent of the US population, and are not concentrated enough in any area for their votes to carry weight: indeed, most of them vote Democrat.