The Trump Halo? Anti-India hate finds new life on social media
Following Trump's repost of an "India is a hellhole" post, anti-India rhetoric gained new life on X, as pro-US accounts pushing anti-India racist remarks saw engagement spike sharply.
“Why don’t you stay in India?... Get the f*** out of my country.” That is what an X user, whose bio identifies him as a “FASHWAVE propagandist”, is heard saying in a video while heckling an Indian couple. In response, the couple said they were in the US as they were “exploring the world”. Sharing the clip online, the user wrote: “I encountered some incredible H-1B Indians, and I had to let them know something.”
The video, one among several such instances surfacing online, has once again raised concerns over the growing visibility of anti-India rhetoric in parts of the United States.
For generations of Indians, America was not just a country, it was a promise. A place where ambition could outrun circumstance, where the “American Dream” translated into opportunity, success, and upward mobility. But as Indians became increasingly visible in the US, from Silicon Valley boardrooms to neighbourhoods shaped by immigrant communities, another reality appears to be surfacing alongside that dream: a growing wave of anti-India rhetoric and racist hostility, increasingly amplified across social media.
The shift has unfolded amid years of tightening immigration debates in the US. But on April 22, when Trump shared on Truth Social a post by a conservative commentator describing India as a “hellhole”, many viewed it as a moment that appeared to further legitimise hostile rhetoric targeting Indians.
India Today’s Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) team analysed a dozen such X accounts and found that eight predominantly anti-India profiles witnessed a sharp rise in engagement following Trump’s amplification of the remark. Across these accounts, interactions, including likes, reposts, and comments, surged from a combined 1,031 before the post to 35,469 afterwards, a jump of over 34 times.
Take the X account “Mrs B”, for instance. The account has repeatedly posted abusive content targeting India and what it describes as the “third world”. On April 8, it posted: “I’ve seen India, it’s an open-air landfill...” The post drew only around 450 engagements.
A month later, however, another anti-India post by the same account, claiming “India is destroying the planet”, amassed over 14,000 engagements, signalling a sharp spike in traction for such rhetoric.
The analysis also revealed a recurring pattern: Indians being portrayed as job stealers, demographic threats, cultural outsiders, or beneficiaries of an allegedly unfair immigration system. While such rhetoric is not new, several accounts appear to be drawing significantly greater traction in recent months, alongside the emergence of newer profiles dedicated almost entirely to anti-India messaging.
A recently created account, “DrNTXNews”, appears to have gained traction by amplifying similar narratives. In the last seven days alone, the hashtag #ReturnToIndia saw over 9,500 posts, a trend the account repeatedly appeared to endorse.
In one post, the account shared a video of children, many seemingly of Indian origin, at play, captioning it: “Spreading like a virus...” while suggesting demographic anxieties around changing neighbourhoods and schools in Texas.
The hostility is often not directed at Indians alone. Big tech firms such as Amazon and Microsoft, along with financial giants like Goldman Sachs, are also targeted for allegedly favouring H-1B visa holders over American workers. Yet, Indians remain at the centre of much of the anger.
One X user, “Cyber09”, mocked a community gathering in Dallas, Texas, calling it a “village feast” and ridiculing Indian cultural practices, while accusing companies like Amazon of becoming “India first” by hiring H-1B workers.
Another account, “ThatGoblinGuyXY”, pushed claims that Indians obtain high-profile jobs in the US through fake qualifications, alleging that Western firms overlook scrutiny because of access to “cheaper, unlimited labour”.
What emerges from the analysis is not merely isolated online abuse but a broader pattern of narratives portraying Indians as economic competitors, demographic threats, or cultural outsiders. While much of the rhetoric overlaps with debates around immigration and H-1B visas, it increasingly spills into overt racial hostility, amplified through viral posts, coordinated hashtags, and accounts that appear built around anti-India messaging.
“Why don’t you stay in India?... Get the f*** out of my country.” That is what an X user, whose bio identifies him as a “FASHWAVE propagandist”, is heard saying in a video while heckling an Indian couple. In response, the couple said they were in the US as they were “exploring the world”. Sharing the clip online, the user wrote: “I encountered some incredible H-1B Indians, and I had to let them know something.”
The video, one among several such instances surfacing online, has once again raised concerns over the growing visibility of anti-India rhetoric in parts of the United States.
For generations of Indians, America was not just a country, it was a promise. A place where ambition could outrun circumstance, where the “American Dream” translated into opportunity, success, and upward mobility. But as Indians became increasingly visible in the US, from Silicon Valley boardrooms to neighbourhoods shaped by immigrant communities, another reality appears to be surfacing alongside that dream: a growing wave of anti-India rhetoric and racist hostility, increasingly amplified across social media.
The shift has unfolded amid years of tightening immigration debates in the US. But on April 22, when Trump shared on Truth Social a post by a conservative commentator describing India as a “hellhole”, many viewed it as a moment that appeared to further legitimise hostile rhetoric targeting Indians.
India Today’s Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) team analysed a dozen such X accounts and found that eight predominantly anti-India profiles witnessed a sharp rise in engagement following Trump’s amplification of the remark. Across these accounts, interactions, including likes, reposts, and comments, surged from a combined 1,031 before the post to 35,469 afterwards, a jump of over 34 times.
Take the X account “Mrs B”, for instance. The account has repeatedly posted abusive content targeting India and what it describes as the “third world”. On April 8, it posted: “I’ve seen India, it’s an open-air landfill...” The post drew only around 450 engagements.
A month later, however, another anti-India post by the same account, claiming “India is destroying the planet”, amassed over 14,000 engagements, signalling a sharp spike in traction for such rhetoric.
The analysis also revealed a recurring pattern: Indians being portrayed as job stealers, demographic threats, cultural outsiders, or beneficiaries of an allegedly unfair immigration system. While such rhetoric is not new, several accounts appear to be drawing significantly greater traction in recent months, alongside the emergence of newer profiles dedicated almost entirely to anti-India messaging.
A recently created account, “DrNTXNews”, appears to have gained traction by amplifying similar narratives. In the last seven days alone, the hashtag #ReturnToIndia saw over 9,500 posts, a trend the account repeatedly appeared to endorse.
In one post, the account shared a video of children, many seemingly of Indian origin, at play, captioning it: “Spreading like a virus...” while suggesting demographic anxieties around changing neighbourhoods and schools in Texas.
The hostility is often not directed at Indians alone. Big tech firms such as Amazon and Microsoft, along with financial giants like Goldman Sachs, are also targeted for allegedly favouring H-1B visa holders over American workers. Yet, Indians remain at the centre of much of the anger.
One X user, “Cyber09”, mocked a community gathering in Dallas, Texas, calling it a “village feast” and ridiculing Indian cultural practices, while accusing companies like Amazon of becoming “India first” by hiring H-1B workers.
Another account, “ThatGoblinGuyXY”, pushed claims that Indians obtain high-profile jobs in the US through fake qualifications, alleging that Western firms overlook scrutiny because of access to “cheaper, unlimited labour”.
What emerges from the analysis is not merely isolated online abuse but a broader pattern of narratives portraying Indians as economic competitors, demographic threats, or cultural outsiders. While much of the rhetoric overlaps with debates around immigration and H-1B visas, it increasingly spills into overt racial hostility, amplified through viral posts, coordinated hashtags, and accounts that appear built around anti-India messaging.
