From Macaca to MAGA: How one needling remark can become a political thorn for Trump

TOI correspondant from Washington: Twenty years ago, a single word helped change the balance of power in Washington.In 2006, Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia was cruising toward re-election and was being talked about as a possible presidential candidate.Then, at a campaign rally, he pointed to S R Sidarth, a young Indian-American volunteer tracking his campaign for Democrat Jim Webb, and called him “Macaca” (monkey), before adding, “Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”The episode went viral, by the modest standards of the pre-TikTok, pre-X era, and transformed the Virginia Senate race.