The “deep state” in the United States had no role to play in the political crisis in Bangladesh, said US President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Trump made the comment during a press conference at the White House alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US president was asked by a reporter what role the American “deep state” had played in the toppling of the Sheikh Hasina government in Dhaka.

Trump added: “[The situation in Bangladesh] is something that the prime minister [Modi] has been working on for a long time, and has been working on for hundreds of years [sic], frankly, I have been reading about it. But I will leave Bangladesh to the prime minister.”

Hasina fled to India on August 5 after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government three days later.

On August 12, the Joe Biden administration in the United States at the time denied allegations that Washington had interfered in Bangladesh’s internal affairs.

“We have had no involvement at all,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary at the time, had said. “Any reports or rumours that the United States government was involved in these events is simply false. That is not true.”

Jean-Pierre was responding to a question about newspaper reports at the time quoting Hasina as having accused Washington of conspiring to oust her because she had refused to hand over the strategic Saint Martin Island, located in the Bay of Bengal, to the United States.

Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed had rejected the reports as “completely false and fabricated”.

In April 2023, Hasina accused Washington of seeking a regime change in Dhaka.

Also read: Why United States’ opposition to Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina has put India in a tricky situation