MAGA Indians Went All In on Trump. Many Right-Wingers Can't Stand Them

[IronLionZion]

https://www.wired.com/story/maga-indians-went-all-in-on-trump/

South Asians are a powerful, visible minority in the Trump administration. They’re also facing a racist backlash, fueled in part by the white nationalist Groyper movement.

But even as South Asians in the US hold a disproportionate slice of jobs in tech and health care, as well as highly visible roles in the White House, they’re facing a noxious swell of racism online—with much of it seemingly coming from MAGA adherents. Some tell WIRED the vitriol is making them feel duped by the president and fearful that the hateful rhetoric will become a mainstay for the party.

“After the victory of Trump, a lot of people started looking for the next enemy,” says Anang Mittal, a creative strategist who’s worked for several Republicans and served under House speaker Mike Johnson. Mittal, who was born in India and voted for Trump twice, resigned in 2024. By his estimation, the newest enemy is Indian American people, including conservatives. “We're the more visible members of the Republican Party,” he says.

South Asians with top roles in and around the Trump administration include White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai, FBI director Kash Patel, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ Harmeet Dhillon, White House AI adviser Sriram Krishnan, National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya, and second lady Usha Vance.

They are a powerful minority (the majority of Indian Americans voted Democrat in the 2024 election), and some of the few people of color in an overwhelmingly white administration. But they are also part of a government that has made opposition to diversity one of its marquee issues and that’s bolstered by right-wing influencers ringing alarms about the country’s Indian invasion. Indian Americans in the administration work alongside colleagues who’ve said “never trust a Chinaman or Indian,” and “normalize Indian hate.”

Leopards must be so stuffed these days.

[Vogon_Glory]

1. Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas. Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Just like the Cuban emigres who fell over themselves to vote Republican in 2016, 2020, and 2024, South Asian Trumpist voters are finding out that racist xenophobia is a bedrock meme in reactionary American politics.

I can’t say that I have any sympathy for them while they are going through some hard schooling.

[Norrrm]

2. 'JD Vance: Some Americans Are More American Than Others'

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016408458#post23

'JD Vance: Some Americans Are More American Than Others'
------------------------------------
Does that include your Indian heritage wife and your half Indian heritage children?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jd-vance-faces-backlash-for-referring-to-his-children-as-his-wifes-kids-in-new-interview/ar-AA1skeuV?ocid=BingNewsSerp

JD Vance faces backlash for referring to his children as 'his wife's kids' in new interview

When Trump says his disgusting comments about immigrants 'poisoning the blood of our country', does he mean Vance's family?

[Norrrm]

3. Is Vance looking for a proper white wife as befits his republican high status?

Is Vance looking for a proper white wife as befits his republican high status?
Maybe Erika Kirk?

Comforting the grieving widow. 'Oh, Charlie, I miss you so much.

[slightlv]

8. Hadn't heard of him talking about "his wife's kids"

but how completely despicable. I hope he's lost all respect in his kid's eyes. It's a horrible way to refer to your kids. Even my husband refers to my grandson as his grandson, tho in truth he's his "step grandpa". Family is family. Personally, I think Vance is dying for a way out of his current marriage and into one with Charlie Kirk's widow. But, damn! He converted to Catholicism, and they don't really condone things like that. I dunno, can he buy a dispensation? Maybe that's one thing he, personally, has against this pope.

[Ray Bruns]

4. Has no one in this bloody country been paying attention to what has nbeeen going on for the past ten years?

“the vitriol is making them feel duped by the president and fearful that the hateful rhetoric will become a mainstay for the party”

[IronLionZion]

5. It's a truly bizarre mindset that never made sense to me

MAGAts always think the leopards are going to eat someone else. MAGAts are always super shocked when it happens to them.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. "disproportionate slice of jobs in tech and health care"... SAY WUT ? Disproportionate in what sense ?

People higher up than I ever was in academia told me some time back that many Indian parents are pushing their kids to excel in school in much the same way that East Asian parents have long done -- sometimes harshly, sometimes counterproductively, but they let their kids know school is not primarily for socializing but for learning. They are expected to do well in class, and failure to do so costs them their parents' respect (and maybe even their love). So maybe they get higher grades, get admitted to better grad schools and med schools, and that gets called "disproportionate" because white students in the same classes didn't bother to take their studies as seriously, but just drifted through a prolonged adolescent stage in which their parents effectively left them with the "baby-sitter" ?

I grew up in the South, and I have plenty of acquaintances and even relatives whose memories of college are mostly about football games and pep rallies. And I've taught plenty of students who seem to think that their instructors are supposed to give them passing grades -- even good grades -- no matter how poorly they do. Any person -- or group of people -- who sets higher standards than that for themselves is going to be "disproportionately" represented.

A publication like Wired should know better than to publish such remarks without qualification and explication.

[F-18_AMO]

7. Truth

My university was focused on academics. There were no scholarships for football and the games weren’t a big deal. Former goddaughter attends the same state school as our niece. The school is considering a course on Bad Bunny??? Pop culture is the focus there. The niece is focused on earning her engineering degree (good program). The other is focused on social events just as she was in high school.

She had a shot at UCLA, but focused on her friends and put schoolwork and family last. Tuition is paid with VA disability funds. She couldn’t have it easier.