A recent comment by Indian American comedian Zarna Garg on a podcast — in which the Mumbai-born standup comedian said that the Indian American community has “no problem with Trump” and that illegal immigration is “not an issue” the diaspora faces — has sparked strong backlash on social media.
“[The] Indian community loves Trump — we don’t have the problems with him that a lot of people in America have,” Garg said, appearing on “The Daily Beast” podcast with Joanna Coles on Nov. 30.
Elaborating in a humorous way, she added, “Well, first of all, our politicians are crooked back home, so that just seems to be a job requirement… Of course [Trump is] a criminal — they all are. Nobody who’s not a criminal wants to do this job. So we’re kind of comfortable with that.”
Garg, who appeared with her daughter, drew a comparison between Trump’s marital infidelity and that of Indian politicians. “Of course, he’s cheated on his wife. They all do it. So we don’t even consider any of those issues.”
However, it was Garg’s comments distancing Indian Americans from undocumented immigration that drew particularly strong criticism for being tone-deaf.
“Now, when it comes to immigration, Indian people by and large are legal immigrants in America,” she said. “Which means it was years of waiting, years of applying paperwork; hundreds and thousands of verifications, and submit this and submit that.”
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Garg continued: “So the whole illegal immigration thing was something that we never really got on board with. We did not understand what was happening during the Biden administration. We could not understand why they were not taking this seriously, because we all… ask any Indian person, we have relatives who’ve been waiting 15 years in line. Because that’s the right thing to do. And yet it felt like anybody who was breaking the law was getting rewarded. So, [the] Indian community has not had the problems with Trump in the way that America has.
Because we don’t… Me personally, I don’t think he should be doing things the way he’s doing that. I have a problem with his execution, but a lot of the problems that he has highlighted are real problems, and just saying that the problem doesn’t exist is not going to make them go away.”
One user on X said, “Cancelling those gargoyles. They had the audacity to represent all South Asian using their twisted view points.”
Another user said, “Zarna Garg and Zoya Garg’s comments about Indian Americans ‘loving Trump’ and their expression of admiration for Usha Vance are not only harmful, but also just factually incorrect.”
According to Pew Research Center estimates of 2021, Indian nationals represent the third-largest undocumented population in the United States, numbering around 725,000. That means more than one in eight India-born individuals in the country is undocumented.
Garg’s daughter Zoya’s remarks on Second Lady Usha Vance were also criticized on social media.
“I think Usha Vance is very aspirational, especially as a girl that’s dating American guys, she makes me feel confident that it’s not abnormal to be in an interracial relationship, that it’s not abnormal to have conservative points of view,” Zoya Garg told Coles. “I think it’s really special that there’s actually one that’s taken such a public position. Her kids are… out there on Instagram constantly, and I think it’s really actually a good thing for America.”
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Asked to weigh in on Vice President J.D. Vance’s statement that he would love to embrace his Hindu wife embrace Christianity, the younger Garg underplayed the vice president’s statement.
“I think it was taken out of turn because if that was really true if … if he meant it in that fully saturated way then there’s no way that they would have gotten married, right?” Zoya Garg said. “Like that’s a decision that has been made 20 years ago I would say and I think the idea that he is so afraid of her faith and her decision to not convert, like there’s no way that they would be together and have kids at this point.”
However, netizens did not take well to Zoya’s comments. One X user wrote, “I was already onto Zarna Garg being MAGA-coded, but her daughter Zoya finding Usha Vance aspirational? And saying Usha normalized dating “American” men when Zoya herself is American? “American” means White to you? Rich Indians stay disappointing.”
Whether it was Garg’s comments on illegal immigration or the mother-daughter duo’s views on the Trump administration, social media users—particularly within the Indian American community—expressed strong dissatisfaction.