Viktor Knavs

A member of the Communist Party as a young man, 74 year-old Viktor lived in the rural town of Sevnica in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, which was best known for its medieval castle and annual salami festival – at least until his son-in-law's unexpected ascent to the White House.

In the former Yugoslavia, membership of the Communist Party was a highly-coveted privilege reserved for an elite few – it's not known how Viktor won his place, although some have speculated that his job as a chauffeur for a mayor of a neighbouring town may have played a part.

According to the New York Times, Mr Knav was described by former

Modi has made Hindu identity (and demonizing Muslims) a core part of his appeal. As Jonah Blank wrote in The Atlantic, Modi’s pitch has distinctly Trumpian themes: “We’re being outbred by minorities. We’re being laughed at by the world. We’re overrun with immigrants—and you know what kind. We’re second-class citizens in our own nation. Make India Great Again.”

Why Houston? And why now?

Part of the reason that Modi is being ferried out to Houston may be a ploy to get coal-wary India to buy Texas oil. But President Trump’s decision to tag along is a testament to the growing clout of the Indian diaspora, especially in Texas. (Though the storms and flooding in the Houston area this week may dull the visibility of that clout on Sunday.)

Texas used to be ruby red for Republicans, but that’s quickly changing—in part because of demographic shifts. As my colleague Ronald Brownstein has written, since 2010, the number of Asians who moved to the state nearly matched the number of white people who did so. Some 120,000 Indian Americans live in the Houston area, part of the reason it’s become the most diverse major city in the nation.

But the president has a lot of work to do to get Indian Americans aboard the Trump Train: Only something like 16 percent of Indian Americans voted for