Bussa Krishna was a small farmer from Konne, a village in the southern Indian state of Telangana, who became known around the world as "Trump Krishna" for worshipping Donald Trump as a god. For years he prayed daily before a framed photo of the then US president placed among images of Hindu deities, and he later built a six-foot statue of Trump outside his home. He died of cardiac arrest in October 2020, days after Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19.
His devotion was eccentric, but it grew out of a real Indian tradition of honouring famous people with shrines, rituals and even temples. This article looks at who he was, how his devotion worked, the claims that surrounded him, and what happened in the end.
Who Bussa Krishna was
When his story first spread in June 2018, Krishna was 31 and farmed near Konne, not far from Hyderabad. Reports described him as a school dropout. He posted on Facebook under the name Krish Raju, sharing near-daily photos and videos of his prayers. He later lost his wife and was raising a young son with the help of his parents.
He told reporters his devotion began around 2016, after Trump appeared to him in a dream. In that dream, he said, Trump predicted that India would beat Pakistan in a cricket match. India did win, and from then on Krishna treated Trump as a protector.
How he worshipped Trump
Photo: Hindustan Times
Krishna kept a portrait of Trump in his home's puja room, the space Hindu households set aside for prayer, decorated with flowers and fairy lights. Each day, after his prayers to the Hindu gods, he turned to the photo and made the same offerings: vermilion, turmeric and flowers, followed by aarti, the ritual waving of a lamp before a deity.
His videos showed other rituals too. In one, he bathed the picture in milk, an offering Hindus commonly make to images of gods in temples. Others showed him praying to the photo in open fields and swimming with it. He also said he fasted every Friday for Trump's wellbeing.
Asked what he knew about the man he worshipped, he admitted it was very little. He told the Hindustan Times he admired Trump's boldness and saw him as a strong, unbeatable leader, and he reasoned that anyone who had appeared at World Wrestling Federation events must be powerful. Trump did take part in WWE storylines in the 2000s, including the 2007 "Battle of the Billionaires" at WrestleMania 23, though as a celebrity guest rather than a wrestler.
Krishna said neighbours laughed at him and some called him mad, but he insisted his faith was sincere. He told one interviewer that Indians who cannot confront powerful people can win them over through love and worship.
(The Facebook video originally embedded here is no longer available.)
The "tweet from Trump" that never was
Krishna told reporters that Trump had sent him a message on Twitter on 19 June 2018. The text that circulated praised "Krish from India" as a close friend who could channel "dragon energy" from his prayers and mocked "low-energy Jeb Bush".
The message borrowed Trump's catchphrases, but no such post ever appeared on Trump's own timeline, as Australia's SBS noted at the time. It was almost certainly written by a parody account or a prankster. Krishna appears to have taken it as genuine and was delighted, saying he was sure Trump would remember him if he ever came to India.
A six-foot statue and a failed meeting
Before Trump's 2020 visit to India, Krishna went further and had a six-foot statue of Trump erected outside his home. He said it took around 15 workers almost a month. It shows Trump in a blue suit and red tie with his right thumb raised, a tilak mark on the forehead. Each morning he spent an hour or two performing rituals before it, and he was photographed kissing and garlanding it.
When Trump made his first official visit to India in February 2020, Krishna travelled to the US Embassy in New Delhi hoping to arrange a meeting. It did not happen.
Why people in India build shrines to living figures
Krishna's devotion was unusual mainly because of its object. In India, honouring living or recently dead public figures in religious language is a long-standing popular practice. Fans have built temples to film stars and cricketers, and political supporters have raised shrines and statues to party leaders. Hindu tradition sees the divine as able to appear in many forms, and rituals such as aarti or bathing an image in milk can be used to express deep gratitude or loyalty, not only belief that someone is literally a god.
Many Indians found Krishna's choice funny or embarrassing, and his own village treated him with a mix of affection and amusement. For journalists in 2018–2020, he was a vivid example of how far a foreign politician's image could travel through social media into rural India.
How the story ended
On 2 October 2020 Trump announced that he and Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. Krishna posted a tearful video saying how sad he was that his god had caught the virus. Friends said he became depressed and stopped eating.
On Sunday 11 October 2020 he collapsed at his parents' home in another part of Telangana and was declared dead of cardiac arrest. Local media put his age in his late thirties. A cousin said he had no known heart problems, and there is no evidence that his fasting caused his death. The village head, Venkat Goud, a close friend, told reporters it was sad that Krishna had died without meeting his hero. Trump recovered from COVID-19 that month.
Krishna left behind his parents, his son and a life-size statue in his backyard in Konne. His story is a reminder of how celebrity, faith and the internet can mix in unexpected ways, and of the very human loneliness that can sit behind a viral headline.
Sources: SBS, 22 June 2018: Farmer in rural India worships Donald Trump; Artnet News, February 2020: the Trump statue in Konne; WION, October 2020: From rural India, he worshipped Trump and built a shrine; Al Arabiya, 12 October 2020. Photos: Hindustan Times.
COMMENTS