'Call is coming from inside the house': Why some MAGA leaders are targets of 'open racism' [View all]

https://www.alternet.org/maga-indians-racist/

'Call is coming from inside the house': Why some MAGA leaders are targets of 'open racism'

Lesley AbravanelNovember 16, 2025 | 08:44AM ET

Indian Americans are increasingly finding themselves the targets of racism by far-right Christian nationalists, and those who identify as MAGA Indian Americans who work in President Donald Trump's administration aren't immune to the vitriol, reports Harmeet Kaur in Newsweek.

When FBI director Kash Patel wished his followers on X a Happy Diwali—a holiday elebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists across the world—"far-right Christian nationalist and white nationalist accounts flooded his post with bigoted memes and rhetoric," Kaur writes.

Similar hostility followed Diwali greetings on X from former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, as well as posts about the holiday from the White House, the State Department, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders," Kaur notes.

Some Indian Conservatives, she writes, are shocked by these reactions, including one who is known for making his own racist statements. "After one X user said that the existence of Indians disgusted them, Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing commentator who has peddled racism against Black Americans for decades, mused: 'In a career spanning 40 years, I have never encountered this type of rhetoric. The Right never used to talk like this. So who on our side has legitimized this type of vile degradation?'" Kaur notes.

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(Are hypocrisy and irony dead yet? Nod to Orrex.)