At a rally like no other, Trump woos Indian American voters ahead of 2020

The Politico ^ | September 22, 2019 | Anita Kumar

[2ndDivisionVet]

HOUSTON — It wasn’t your typical Trump campaign rally.

Instead of red Make America Great Again hats, there were turbans and Islamic caps. Women in traditional Indian garb danced to bhangra drums. And tens of thousands of cheering Indian Americans chanted “USA!” and snapped photos.

President Donald Trump appeared at a cavernous football stadium on Sunday alongside Narendra Modi, the popular prime minister of India, who attracted a crowd of 50,000 from across the U.S. to what was touted as the largest event in the country for a leader of a foreign nation.

“You have never had a better friend as president than President Donald Trump,” Trump said as the crowd roared with approval. “We thank you. We love you. I want you to know my administration is fighting for you each and every day.”

Trump is hoping to appeal to Indian American voters, a growing political force in the U.S., with his business-friendly agenda — especially the 2017 tax cuts — as well as his tough talk on terrorism and his decision to show up at the rally even though the ethnic group has generally backed Democrats.

“It’s giving a message to the Indian community that Trump is a big friend of India,” said Rupesh Srivastava, a Michigan businessman and founding member of the Republican Hindu Coalition. “That message will definitely motivate people.”

[2banana]

But...but...brown people!!!!

[central_va]

Lets’ give away all of out IT jobs to Indians. Yeah. That’s the ticket. /sarc

[lee martell]

Nikki H. should have been there too.
Aren’t these her people?

[central_va]

So when he signs the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act he woll lose 10x the votes of displaced IT workers. Trump is getting bad advice form somewhere. Jarvanka? This is a mistake. This how you lose an election kowtowing to Indians WHO ALL VOTE DEMOCRAT AND WILL NEVER CHANGE.

How about MAGA? What happened to that?

[central_va]

He doesn’t need to do this to win.

[DallasGal]

Interestingly, I have friends in India who thought Obama was the cat’s meow. One is moving to Germany for grad school. One is now in Canada and thinks Trudeau is amazing. Those still in Mumbai are busy with life, work, kid. They are a curious mix of wanting freedom and socialism.

[Jane Long]

Chill, FRiend.

Trust POTUS.

[gcparent]

Best president in many many years.

[LibertyWoman]

Being the cynic that I am, and I completely support President Trump, there is a bill allowing 300K Indians in on H1B visas; it's already passed the House with 140 repubics voting for it (notice there was virtually no publicity on this) and is scheduled to be voted on by the Senate on Thursday. So...was this just to dupe us...again? wtf? Was this to show how wonderful they are so we'll be ok with potus signing the bill?

btw, the bill is being sponsored by Mike Lee and Kamala Harris. As far as I'm concerned, we're on our own. It remains to be seen if Trump vetoes it or signs it.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So President Trump should only talk to certain kinds of Americans? I think you have the problem, not President Trump.

[central_va]

I trust no one. The H-1B sellout of American workers is only just starting. I think the quotas will be up’ed. This is my guess but Jarvanka is in love with immigrants.

[Pelham]

“They are a curious mix of wanting freedom and socialism.”

Bet you a dollar the GOP will never figure out the connection between that Dot Indian habit and California becoming an Obama Democrat bastion.

[central_va]

So President Trump should only talk to certain kinds of Americans?

The optics are bad kowtowing to an ethnic group like this. Indians are OVERWHELMINGLY Democrat.

[Parley Baer]

“He doesn’t need to do this to win.”

IMHO Texas is going to be very close in 2020. I think President Trump will need every vote he can get.

[NorthMountain]

Obviously, a bigoted racist ...

[central_va]

President of India?

[mrsmith]

meant to watch this to see how Trump played the Indians (very important geopolitical partner) with the anti-HB1 issue.
Didn’t though.

[central_va]

He loses 10 IT workers for every Indian he gets. The math is all wrong. A lot of us are sick of the Indian invasion. This is another reminder.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

At least it's more than Mexicans do. The only thing the Mexicans are capable of at a rally is throwing urine on the American players and waving the Mexican flag and flipping the bird to every American.