Ross Douthat

You mentioned, you know, in the United States, relations have been better than ever up until very recently.

Trump in particular spent a lot of time courting Americans.

Indian American voters.

He did an event with Modi in 2019, right?

Howdy Modi in Texas.

It's an amazing name.

But then in the second Trump term, there's been a swing and it isn't just a swing where Trump is imposing tariffs on Europe.

It's also a swing where there is this kind of anti-Indian backlash on the right.

So both tell me where you think that comes from, but also just talk about how you see, how do you think Americans see India or see Indians, I think is the better way to put it.

Not just Texas.

No, no.

It's New York as well as Texas.

All the centers.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that's part of my perception about the place of India in the U.S., is that there's this way in which...

Indian immigrants have been more successful at attaining positions of elite influence.

And this is most obvious maybe in Silicon Valley, but you can also see it in U.S.

politics and in both political parties, right?

It's Vivek Ramaswamy and Usha Vance as well as Indian Americans in the Democratic Party.

But this is sort of there's sort of a flipping back and forth where at certain moments, Indian success drives a kind of admiration where it's like this is, you know, the successful minority.