MAGA brown-out: For Indian Trump acolytes, citizenship comes with an asterisk
Indian-origin conservatives supporting Donald Trump are reportedly facing racist attacks and scrutiny over their 'American-ness' within the MAGA movement, despite ideological alignment. Figures like Harmeet Dhillon, Dinesh D'Souza, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley have encountered such challenges, while Democrats like Pramila Jayapal and Raja Krishnamoorthi have long faced similar or worse racism from MAGA extremists.
Why it matters
This article explores the complex interplay of identity, race, and political affiliation within the American conservative movement, revealing internal tensions and the persistence of racial prejudice even among ideological allies, which has significant implications for minority groups in politics.
TOI correspondent from Washington: For years, Indian-origin conservatives in the Trump orbit have been comforting themselves that race doesn't matter, ideology does. They are now discovering a rather inconvenient footnote: in the MAGA world, you can pass the ideological exam and still fail the race test and dinner evaluation.Trump’s Chandigarh-born legal luminary Harmeet Dhillon’s effort to portray herself as all-American by posting a photo of a beef dinner has invited ridicule from MAGA trolls, as has conservative Dinesh D’Souza’s attempt to defend his daughter from racist attacks by telling MAGA exclusionists that her mother is white. Ohio-governor aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy and Trump’s former UN envoy Nikki Haley, at various points, found themselves having to demonstrate that they are American enough.Democrats and liberals have of course experienced this to an even greater degree.
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