Trump’s Indian American supporters clash with racist Trumpers

By Aneela Brister, AsAmNews Intern

An old social media post from a White House staffer and found by the Wall Street Journal screamed “Normalize Indian hate.”

By that afternoon, he had resigned.

The young staffer was one of Elon Musk’s tech hires for the newly-formed Department for Government Efficiency. The Journal found that he had been making a slew of racist posts under a pseudonymous account as recently as September. He particularly railed against Indian engineers brought into the US via H1-B visas. 

However, this week, the tables turned: after special intervention from Musk himself and Vice President JD Vance, the staffer was rehired.

The episode came as a slap in the face for the cohort of techie Indian Americans who touted their move to MAGA during the last election as a rebellion against what they called the “woke mindset” of the Democrats. 

This cohort sees Trump’s Silicon Valley allies as their champions. Musk, who hires a number of Indians in his companies in top positions, recently spoke up in favor of bringing more tech talent from India. And Vance, who has his own ties to Silicon Valley money, is married to Indian American attorney Usha Vance.

Now, it was these very same champions who had let them down. 

“The far right is playing a dangerous game with Indian Americans,” said influencer Vasant Bhatt on X. Just a few months ago, Bhatt had volunteered for pro-Trump PAC Hindus For America First. Disenchanted now that anti-woke politics had come back to bite them, he said, “Many of us took a chance on this party […].If all we get in return is being smeared, mocked, and targeted, the backlash will be generational.”

“What a sh*t show MAGA has become,” said another Indian American influencer, who also voted for Trump. “It’s turning into a white propaganda [sic] led by JD Vance.”

Trump has been in office for less than a month. However, this is already the third or fourth time Trump’s Indian American supporters have had reason to clash with his nativist base, with whom they remain in an uneasy alliance. 

Small shift to right among Indian American voters

While there was a small but real move towards the right among Indian Americans, most remained solidly Democratic. According to a Carnegie Endowment study, around 60% of Indian Americans voted for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris during 2024.

Chintan Patel, the executive director of Indian American Impact, a civic engagement group that generally aligns with Democrats, chalked up the modest shift to the right among the diaspora to a reaction against the high inflation that occurred early in President Biden’s term, which was a worldwide phenomenon due to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

He said the issues animating Indian Americans remained basic kitchen table issues. “Inflation, groceries—those were topics that came up all the time,” he said. “Gun violence in our communities, reproductive healthcare.” 

However, Ankur Misra, a member of the executive committee at American Hindu Coalition (AHC), a group that combats anti-Hindu bigotry, said deeper factors were at play when it came to Indian American support for Trump. 

He said first generation immigrants who work in IT, such as himself, were particularly drawn to right-wing politics due to their inclination towards traditional values, meritocracy, and a rejection of “woke” politics. 

In addition, Misra said, pro-Trump politics for many Hindus resonated with their support for India’s nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, back home. “It’s a nice marriage to our struggle here,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Modi’s friendship with Trump resonates with his supporters

When Trump won, congratulations flowed in from India’s government. Modi, who remains solidly popular at home, has often touted his special friendship with Trump. Today, February 13, he is scheduled to become one of the first world leaders to visit Trump during his second term.  

Misra also pointed to Trump’s appointment of several members of the Indian diaspora to high positions in his administration.

Indian American nominees of the new administration, including Kash Patel as the FBI director, and Tulsi Gabbard as the DNI, both Hindus, received high-fives from many in the diaspora. Hinduism is the majority religion in India and among Indian Americans. 

The 44-year-old Patel, a former federal prosecutor, is one of Trump’s strongest acolytes, and has long promised retribution against his perceived enemies. During his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30, he was seen touching his parents’ feet, a traditional Indian form of obeisance, and was heard greeting them with “Jai Shri Krishna,” which means “Victory to Lord Krishna.” 

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), a group that sees itself as the pre-eminent voice for Hindu Americans, cheered Patel during his Senate confirmation hearing. 

“The first confirmation hearing in American history” to feature this Hindu greeting, crowed HAF on X. 

However, Misra, who celebrated Trump’s victory by attending the inauguration ball, is also aware of the challenges of being part of Trump’s coalition. 

Speaking of the constant slurs against Indians that have lately become a feature of Musk’s X platform, Misra said, “some of the slurs were thrown by extreme MAGAs, who we, the Hindu community, don’t align with. We don’t think President Trump is extreme, even though some claim he is when we see appointees like Patel and Gabbard, they were appointed by President Trump, right?”

Going forward, he hoped for his group to have a voice in restructuring the H1-B visa in ways that would encourage more merit-based immigration. 

However, Misra warned, ceding too much power to the nativist MAGA base, for instance by cracking down H1-B visas, or ending birthright citizenship, would certainly cause a backlash. 

Trump’s order to ban Birthright citizenship worries his Indian American supporters

Trump has, in fact, vowed to end birthright citizenship. An executive order signed on Trump’s first day in office denies the right of citizenship to babies born within US borders to parents who are either undocumented or under a temporary visa. Last Wednesday, the order was indefinitely blocked by federal district judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland because it violates the 14th Amendment.

Chintan Patel of Indian American Impact pointed out that this policy, if it were to take effect, had the potential to wreak havoc among H1-B visa holders. 

“There are one million plus Indian Americans in the green card backlog through no fault of their own,” he said, “which is estimated to be 134 years. It’s basically a life sentence. And, if birthright citizenship is gone, if you have kids here, when they turn 18 they’re going to be deported.”

The problem of the employment-based green card backlog concerns Indian Americans of both parties. According to a 1990 law, each country is subject to a 7% per-country cap on how many can be let in on employment-based green cards. If nothing changes in Congress, the queue of Indians with pending green card applications is projected to hit two million by 2030. 

This issue sparked the first clash between Indian Americans and MAGA. Just before Christmas, Trump announced that Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan, who is a first-generation Indian immigrant, would be appointed as an adviser on AI policy. 

Nativists among his base instantly recoiled. Laura Loomer, a rabble-rousing Trump supporter, highlighted statements from Krishnan where he recommends removing per-country caps on employment-based green cards, which would have the effect of massively increasing high-skilled immigration from India. 

“This is not America First,” said Loomer, calling his appointment “deeply alarming.” Her post set off weeks of anti-Indian racism, both on social media and in real life. 

Both of Trump’s campaigns for president, in 2016 and in 2024, presaged mass expulsion of undocumented immigrants. In an executive order passed on the first day of the administration, he called the influx an “invasion,” and accused them of “vile and heinous acts.” 

Arrests of undocumented immigrants got underway days after he took office. On Wednesday last week, a military plane of around 100 expelled Indians landed in the Indian state of Punjab. 

These raids had created fear and uncertainty in the Indian American community, said Chintan Patel. According to an estimate by Pew, almost 725,000 of the 5 million Indian Americans are undocumented. “They are on a razor’s edge, waiting to see what happens,” Patel said. 

Many in this cohort, Patel said, are Dreamers—adults who were brought here as kids through no decision of their own.

Seeing this as a moment of crisis, immigrant groups serving the Indian diaspora have swung into action. After fears rose of ICE raids in Sikh temples, the Sikh Coalition released a “Know Your Rights” guide for temples. Last week, HAF held a seminar to educate immigrants on their rights.

Members of the diaspora who support Trump were generally in favor of the deportation of undocumented Indian nationals. “I hope this sends a strong message to all those who break our immigration laws—don’t do it,” said Utsav Sanduja, the founder of the pro-Trump PAC Hindus For America First, in an email.

However, the gratuitous harshness in which the deportations were done made many Indians uncomfortable, setting up another brewing battle.

On Tuesday last week, Trump’s border patrol chief Mike Banks shared a video of handcuffed Indian nationals being frog marched into a US Army plane, with triumphal music in the background. The responses on his post were full of racist memes against Indians. 

“More of this please. We have a ton of them in Dallas!” said one. “Imagine the smell on that plane,” said another. 

The deportees had been treated like high-security criminals, bound and shackled for the duration of the 40-hour flight. But according to the accounts in Indian media, they had spent their life savings to get into America. They had been shunted across the border into America on a donkey’s back across dangerous terrain.

The gloating over the deportation from the nativist faction of MAGA also swept up former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. “Anybody named ‘Vivek’ on that plane?” said a post from MAGA celebrity Ann Coulter. 

Ramaswamy, who had once been the poster-boy of the Indian diaspora’s political maturity—and their ambassador into MAGAverse, had been ousted from his position on Musk’s team during the H1-B battle. Ramaswamy has denied he was fired. 

Ultimately, said Patel, Trump’s outreach to Indian Americans was not real. “He was pushed out before even Day One of the administration,” Patel said. “And I think that’s a reflection of how his base views Indian American voices.”

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

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