India, April 25 -- A president can insult a foreign nation in many ways. The crudest may be the easiest, a tap on a repost button that turns a slur into state speech.

Donald Trump's decision to amplify a Truth Social post calling India and China "hellholes" and branding Indian immigrants "gangsters with laptops" was not stray online noise. It was a public act by the White House. Once that language moved through a presidential account, it stopped being a hot take and became a message with diplomatic weight.

That is why this episode matters. It was not plainspoken honesty. It was reckless statecraft, grievance dressed up as candor, and a needless humiliation of a country Washington still describes as a strategic partner.

Presidents don't...