The India Today Group has invited Laura Loomer – a garden-variety racist (particularly of the anti-Indian kind), Donald Trump loyalist, ‘proud Islamophobe,’ and Israel-first influencer – as a speaker to the India Today Conclave 2026. The MAGA influencer is scheduled to speak tomorrow between 12.30 pm and 1 pm on the subject ‘Death to Islamic Terrorism: The Trump Approach’. 

India Today’s decision to invite Loomer has sparked a rare moment of consensus across the ideological divide. Critics on social media have slammed the Group, pointing to Loomer’s well-documented history of virulent anti-Indian racism as a primary reason for their outrage.

Despite claims by some users of X that she has deleted some of her anti-Indian tweets ahead of the conclave, you can still see a few of them.

For an Indian audience, Loomer earned notoriety in December 2024, when she opposed Trump’s decision to appoint Sriram Krishnan as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, particularly for his stance on removing the country cap on H1-B visas. 

According to this January 2025 report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) titled ‘Anti-Indian Hate on X’: 

“Loomer opposed Sriram’s appointment as antithetical to the nativist principle of ‘America First,’ a MAGA talking point, on grounds that he had called for removing green card caps and that he wanted to grant science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs to immigrants that ‘rightfully’ belonged to Americans.”

“Loomer is an important and influential figure in the MAGA universe. Her public disagreement and feud with Musk on the H-1B program – which allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations – is a reflection of the MAGA base’s unflinching opposition to immigration and indicates a schism between various constituencies of Trump supporters.”

This nativist/racist sentiment was on full display while responding to a post highlighting the role of skilled workers in building America.

As the CSOH went on note in their report, “Additionally, as an unabashed white supremacist, Loomer’s stance is likely to galvanize the more extreme racist and white supremacist elements among Trump supporters, which may well lead to a rise in anti-Indian sentiment and anti-South Asian sentiment.”

And along expected lines, last year saw a massive uptick in anti-Indian racism on X in the US. In September 2025, the CSOH released a follow-up report, which “analyzed a dataset of 680 posts on X targeting Indians and Indian-origin communities” that together amassed more than 281 million views.

“Since then (release of their January 2025 report), anti-Indian racism on social media, including X, has shown no signs of abating,” the report said.

It goes on to add: “The dominant cluster in the X dataset, comprising 474 posts, depicts Indians as frauds, invaders, and job thieves, who need to be expelled and banned from the US. Posts in this category also demand mass deportations of Indians, termination of their visas, and denaturalization of naturalized Indian citizens.”

Loomer’s hostility isn’t reserved solely for everyday immigrants. She has also set her sights on Indian-origin members of the US Congress. 

She has repeatedly used the xenophobic ‘go back to India’ trope against representatives who defend immigration or criticise Donald Trump. In April 2025, she launched a tirade against Democratic Congressman Shri Thanedar, leaning into the racist stereotype of Indians as  ‘scammers’ after he filed an impeachment motion against the US president.

Given this backdrop, it seems that the ITG’s decision to invite a rabid anti-Indian racist like Loomer to their conclave deserves all the criticism in the world. Now, while one might hope for a rigorous cross-examination of her track record of anti-Indian racism following her address, given the Conclave’s history of hospitality over hostility, none of us should hold our breath.

Why Loomer may appeal to right-wing Indians

But there is more to this story. As this New Lines Magazine profile explains, “She is Jewish, staunchly pro-Israel and often supports aggressive military action against Muslim-majority countries as part of her vision of an ‘America First’ agenda. This has helped to create a new model of far-right politics, one that aims to overcome the wariness and skepticism of many American Jews about the MAGA movement’s conspiratorial and white nationalist tendencies.”

“Despite her relationship with the white nationalist movement, Loomer made nearly successful runs for the U.S. House of Representatives in both 2020 and 2022, and has been a presence in story after story about Trump’s efforts to rid the government of opponents and secure a loyalist cadre,” the profile added. 

Her proximity to Trump, rabid Islamophobia and a strident pro-Israel stance make her an appealing prospect to the Hindu right.

Sample some of these tweets:

From stating “We attack Islam because we don’t want more Muslims in America,” to justifying the killing of women and children in Gaza, to shilling for the IDF – Loomer wouldn’t be out of place in the dark corners of the online Hindu Right. Her rhetoric, which includes accusing Iran of using children as “human shields” to excuse the killing of over 160 schoolgirls in a US missile strike, fits right into the sensationalist, polarising atmosphere of modern Indian news studios.

But what would really make the Hindu right weak in the knees is her tweet in June 2025 dismissing Pakistan’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination for Trump following the cessation of Operation Sindoor as “gaslighting” propaganda, asserting that “Islamists are always the aggressors”.

And Loomer isn’t the first vile racist to be platformed by the Indian media. Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon – better known as Tommy Robinson – was interviewed by CNN News18 for nearly 30 minutes in September 2025 following a major anti-immigration rally in London. 

One can only conclude that, for certain Indian TV channels, being a rabid racist is easily overlooked as long as one is also a vocal Islamophobe. 

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