Anti-Indian racism has been surging in right-wing media
By Sage Hodil & Ben Van Bloem
October 9, 2026
Right-wing media’s racist attacks and ethnic slurs directed at Indians, other South Asians, and South Asian Americans have surged over the past year, in part fueled by conservative infighting over the H-1B visa program and a handful of viral posts.
Commentators in the conservative media ecosystem have used anti-Indian slurs and characterized the presence of Indian immigrants as “harmful to America.” Some of these figures allege that the U.S. is being “invaded by Indians” who “have abused the H-1B visa system in order to change America forever.” Additionally, commentators said that H-1B visas “shouldn’t even exist” and claimed that “we need a Northern wall” to prevent Indian migrants coming to the United States from Canada.
What's fueling the right's recent surge in anti-Indian rhetoric?
Two racist posts from September garnered national attention and inflamed bigotry against Indian immigrants. On September 10, the Department of Homeland Security removed a post which depicted a Transformer facing off against a Sikh trucker with the caption, “Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr. Singh.” And on September 13, Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French wrote, “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” in reference to nonwhite students celebrating at a University of Texas football game. Shortly after French’s post, right-wing figures rallied to his defense, with MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson lamenting that “Indians have abused the H-1B visa system in order to change America forever, in order to effectively create an indentured servitude caste system” and “colonize the West for the good of India.” [The New York Times, 9/10/26; Media Matters, 9/14/26]
Hateful rhetoric against South Asians “is widespread, growing and showing no signs of letting up.” Executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance Manjusha Kulkarni said there have been “marked spikes in online slurs and threats of violence directed at the Indian community” and that “this shift show[s] up explicitly in debates over H-1B visas.” Kulkarni mentioned that much of this rhetoric is “rooted in the racist ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory” and said that while the rhetoric “isn’t new,” it has flourished because “social media lets bigoted rhetoric and ideas spread and shape policy debates in real time, at a pace and scale not possible before.” [The American Bazaar, 9/15/26]
The Trump administration has targeted H-1B visas as part of its broader immigration crackdown. H-1B visas have become a wedge issue on the right — immigration hardliners have called for “tighter restrictions or an end to the program,” while tech-aligned advocates have defended the visas, which companies use when recruiting skilled workers from other countries. In September, President Donald Trump extended an executive order imposing heavy fees for H-1B non-immigrant visas and he reportedly “wants to permanently raise the fee from between $2,000 and $5,000 to at least $100,000.” The Trump administration has also mandated “federal agencies to scrutinize H-1B applications more closely.” The efforts have faced multiple legal hurdles as judges continue to strike down the exorbitant fee. [Reuters, 9/18/26; Forbes, 9/21/26, 10/1/26; Newsweek, 10/5/26]
Right-wing media continue racist attacks against Indian immigrants
Conservative commentator Christopher Rufo published a video titled “The Indian Question” — language which echoes the infamous “Jewish question” — in which co-host Jonathan Keeperman downplayed racism as just “part of the assimilation hazing process.” Rufo said that “this cultural and racial sorting … is in some ways natural, right?” and claimed that “people are attracted to this kind of let's say superficial similarity.” Keeperman responded, “I don't think it's superficial.” [Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed 10/6/26; YouTube, Rufo & Lomez, 9/26/26, 9/26/26]
White nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes used a slur against Indian people while criticizing a video showing students at a University of Texas game, saying “every single spectator is a dark brown jeet.” Fuentes continued, “I see the image and it's actually a visceral reaction I think that you feel. Because you immediately realize this is wrong. This is bad. This is undesirable.” Fuentes later also claimed the U.S. is “in a fucking war” with “the Indians.” [Rumble, America First, 9/14/26, 9/28/26]
Fuentes attacked Vice President JD Vance and Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) as “race-mixing degenerates” and “race-mixing traitors married to Indians,” because they are married to Indian American women. Fuentes ranted, “Why is based Brandon Gill not going to weigh in on the Indian takeover of America? Would it happen to be because he has an Indian wife and children? That his father-in-law is Dinesh D'Souza? That's not an Italian name, no, Dinesh D'Souza is his father-in-law. Oh, it's because all of the standard bearers of MAGA are race-mixing degenerates. They're all race-mixing race traitors married to Indians like Brandon Gill and JD Vance.” [Rumble, America First, 9/21/26]
Louder with Crowder’s director of production Timothy Fox said Indians are “literally shitting in the streets and terraforming the U.S. into India” and called to “kick them out.” In a separate episode, Fox repeated his “terraforming” claim while host Steven Crowder mocked the tradition of Visarjan, and joked about using air-dropped crocodiles on migrants. [Rumble, Louder with Crowder, 10/21/25, 9/23/26]
Manosphere podcaster Amrou Fudl, known online as Myron Gaines, said Indians who are “coming over here, taking over all the 7 Elevens with their dumbass accents” make other Indians who “assimilate and aren't fucking retarded and don't smell … look bad.” Fudl also said people who believe “H-1B visas are awesome” and that we should “bring in more Indians” are “all NPCs, they're all bots, there's no critical thinking.” [Rumble, MyronGainesX, 9/23/26, 9/23/26; Media Matters, 11/21/25]
YouTuber Tyler Oliveira titled his video with the claim that Texas is experiencing an “Indian invasion.” In other videos, Oliveira also alleged that Canada and Portugal are facing “Indian Invasion” in the titles of long-form videos. Critics have pointed out that these types of videos “alleging an Indian ‘invasion’ have emerged as another means of manufacturing purported evidence for the narrative that South Asians are taking over American community life and spaces.” [YouTube, Tyler Oliveira, 4/5/26, 1/26/26, 5/9/26; Center for the Study of Organized Hate, 9/28/26]
Podcaster Hannah Pearl Davis said “it’s just true” that “Indians smell” and referred to Indians as “pajeets.” Davis' comments occurred while playing the piano and singing a song in which she also lamented not having a “pass” to say the N-word. [YouTube, Pearl Daily, 2/16/26]
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed Indians consume cow feces and urine “right out of their ass.” Jones said, “It's so downtrodden that they learn to celebrate, there's cows everywhere, you can't eat them, you have to worship them. So they just eat the poop right out of their ass, drink the urine right out of their — I'm not kidding.” [Rumble, The Alex Jones Show, 7/4/26]
Author Andrew Meyer, a guest on The Alex Jones Show, argued, “There is nothing I can think of more anti-American or harmful to America than bringing in hundreds of thousands, millions of Indians to take jobs from Americans.” Meyer said, “These people are literally polluting rivers all over Texas. They're dumping garbage into the rivers, doing pagan rituals. There is nothing I can think of more anti-American or harmful to America than bringing in hundreds of thousands, millions of Indians to take jobs from Americans, destroy the middle class, impoverish Americans, bring in a foreign culture that remits all of their money to India.” Meyer also claimed that “American CEOs are getting replaced by Indians,” who he referred to as “third world slave labor.” [Rumble, The Alex Jones Show, 9/3/26]
Right-wing media claim the U.S. has been “invaded by Indians” who have “abused the H-1B visa system”
War Room host Harrison Smith claimed that we have “let 10,000 Indians come over here and take a, you know, gas station job with their fraudulent doctor's degree from India,” citing supposed “fraud” in the H-1B system. Smith went on to say about H-1B visas: “The whole thing should be eliminated.” [Rumble, War Room with Harrison Smith, 9/16/26]
Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson claimed that “predominantly Indians … have abused the H-1B visa system in order to change America forever, in order to effectively create an indentured servitude caste system.” Johnson doubled down on this claim about H-1B visas a few days later, saying it is “legalized illegal immigration that is predominantly predicated by Indians to come here and to bring their family members over here, and specific caste systems, and to bring a foreign culture over here in order to manipulate jobs, and take those jobs from Americans.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 9/13/26, 9/16/26]
Podcaster Kevin DeAnna — characterized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white nationalist” — claimed it’s “impossible to get a job unless you’re the same caste of whatever Indian is running HR.” DeAnna said in full, “We're all fucking depressed. Thanks to people like this. We live in a Third World shithole where nothing works. We're on track to be in a minority in our own country. No one under 30 will ever get a job or get a house or get married. It's practically impossible to get a job unless you're the same caste of whatever Indian is running HR.” [Rumble, Identity Politics, 7/9/26; Southern Poverty Law Center, 3/18/21]
Right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly said, “There is, if you are of Indian descent, currently a huge pushback against your people. To put it frankly, [you've] worn out your welcome." Kelly also claimed Indians have “changed the face of so many communities so rapidly,” in part due to the “different religion they bring here that is different than the traditional religions of the United States of America.” [Premiere Networks, The Jesse Kelly Show, 9/18/26]
Discussing the H-1B program, Rufo said that “Indian nationals … they’re kind of taking advantage of this particular immigration path that no longer even serves its original intention." [YouTube, Rufo & Lomez, 9/26/26]
In a segment for Frontlines TPUSA about Indian immigrants and the H-1B system, Tayler Hansen claimed, “Indians aren’t just arriving through Canada, they’ve become Canada’s largest export to the United States.”” [YouTube, Frontlines TPUSA, 7/30/26, 7/30/26]
Right-wing online personality Jeremy Hambly, known as TheQuartering, proclaimed, “We need a northern wall,” because we are being “invaded by Indians.” Hambly also said that when “most people think about … the border, they think of Latino people crossing the border. But we are being just as invaded by Indians and people of the religion of peace at our northern border. And Donald Trump needs to do something about it immediately.” [YouTube, TheQuartering, 8/11/26]
BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales said, “Apparently the Indian community can't seem to grasp the notion that it's not their birthright to just be able to come here and take American jobs.” Responding to criticisms from her “naysayers” that there is no proof Indians “are committing fraud” with H-1B visas, Gonzales stated, “I know things that I can’t share, and I so badly want to share them because it would shut all of that shit down. But unfortunately, these investigations take time.” [YouTube, Sara Gonzales Unfiltered, 8/27/26; 9/14/26]
Right-wing media attack and spread misinformation about Hinduism and Indian traditions
Reacting to a video about a local Diwali festival in the Indian village of Gumatapura, podcaster Brett Cooper said, “You will never be able to convince me that what is happening there in all of these videos is compatible with the Western world or American culture.” [YouTube, The Brett Cooper Show, 11/11/25]
Johnson falsely claimed there is a Hindu statue in Texas that is “a statue of a demon” and a “false god,” adding, “Christians should not be okay with that.” Johnson also remarked, “For you to not see the irony in this that you have created a massive cultural bulkhead here for not America, but for India and Hindus.” [YouTube, The Benny Show, 9/14/26; Houston Public Media, 8/26/24]
Smith said, “It’s the church’s values that are being destroyed by the secular takeover of a bunch of non-Christians, including by the way, Hindus from India.” Smith then took issue with the argument that Indians are “assimilatable,” unlike Muslims, and said that “Hinduism is kind of crazier than Islam.” [Rumble, War Room with Harrison Smith, 9/17/26]
