Donald Trump with Kash Patel (AP image)
WASHINGTON: Desis are in a doom spiral in the MAGA world. The populist, nationalist fervor that has defined the MAGA movement is now fueling a fierce internal conflict, with pro-Trump Indian-American conservatives like Dinesh D’Souza and Kash Patel finding themselves on the receiving end of the xenophobic attacks that critics say they once helped mainstream. The growing “civil war” is largely driven by the far-right, white nationalist “Groyper” movement led by MAGA extremist Nick Fuentes, whose explicitly racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric is challenging the party’s establishment, exposing a profound schism within the Republican base.The core thesis of this internal turmoil is that in a movement built on nativism and “America First” xenophobia, no minority ally is ultimately safe as MAGA desis are discovering. Conservatives like D’Souza and Patel, who have aligned their careers with the MAGA agenda, are being branded as “useful idiots” whose loyalty is discarded the moment they cease to be politically useful.The “awakening” became public following a Halloween post by Vivek Ramaswamy – a Trump acolyte running for Governor of Ohio – that drew vitriolic, racist demands online for him to “Go back to your country” and fix his “home.” It was not an isolated incident; Ramaswamy has been routinely targeted for his Indian heritage and Hindu faith, which was publicly denounced by one audience member as a “wicked pagan religion.” So too has Kash Patel, whose overt embrace of Hinduism has also been attacked. The same bigotry is being directed at the family of Vice President JD Vance, whose wife Usha Vance is being labeled a “political liability” by the MAGA fringe, underscoring the impossibility of belonging in a movement whose foundation rests on white Christian nationalism.The backlash has forced a reckoning on long-time MAGA like D’Souza who for decades built a career as a “token Indian” attack dog, promoting anti-Black rhetoric and white nationalist talking points. Now, as the toxic tide he helped unleash turns on the very desis he once disowned, he is expressing alarm. D’Souza condemned the abuse directed at Ramaswamy as a “sh*tshow and unreal,” placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of figures like Tucker Carlson, who has platformed Nick Fuentes, and conservative organizations like The Heritage Foundation for normalizing the far-right elements. “Look at the abuse Vivek is getting for posting an innocuous photo with his boys…. If this continues, I would not be surprised to see mass desertions of blacks, Latinos and other minorities from the GOP,” he cautioned. The warning has already materialized. In Edison, New Jersey—a desi enclave with one of the largest concentration of Indian-Americans in the country—the recent gubernatorial election data shows a dramatic shift away from GOP among Indian-American voters, with more than 50% of desis flipping from Republican to Democratic. The swing is attributed to disillusionment with the party’s escalating nativism, reckless immigration enforcement that has scared minorities, and attacks on high-profile Indian-American figures. Although the sample size was small (less than 1000 votes), Edison’s shift could signal the broader electoral hemorrhage D’Souza fears.Liberal commentators are meanwhile having a field day mocking MAGA desis. “Dinesh D’Souza has been lying and grifting in far-right circles for decades, and he never minded the sewer he contributed to until it turned on him,” one black podcaster ridiculed him.
