Social Media Firebrand Confronted Over Anti-India, Islamophobic Remarks in New Delhi
Laura Loomer, a prominent figure on the right-wing social media landscape and an adviser to former President Donald Trump, found herself in a heated exchange during a recent trip to New Delhi. The fiery encounter occurred when an Indian journalist presented her with a series of her own past tweets disparaging India and its people during a public event.
The incident unfolded at the India Today Conclave, where journalist Rajdeep Sardesai confronted Loomer with the archived posts. While Loomer’s tweets had reportedly been deleted prior to her visit, they had already been preserved by others.
Addressing the conclave, Loomer initially attempted to de-escalate the situation, stating she had just spoken with Donald Trump. She then read aloud a message she attributed to the former president, which reportedly stated, “I love India. I love Modi and I love the Indian people.”
However, the hosts of the event did not shy away from pressing Loomer on her history of controversial statements, particularly those concerning Islam. This was a significant point of contention, given that Muslims constitute approximately 15 percent of India’s population, numbering around 205 million individuals.
Despite the context, Loomer reiterated her deeply held and contentious views, asserting that “Islam is a cancer on the world” and that she does not “believe that Islamophobia is real.” She went further, stating, “I believe that it should be illegal in the United States for Muslims to hold office.”
When initially questioned about her past disparaging remarks regarding India, prior to the tweets being presented, Loomer offered an apology, conceding, “I shouldn’t have said some of the things that I said … and I apologize if my remarks offended people.”
However, she maintained her criticism of the H-1B visa program, a pathway frequently utilised by Indian professionals seeking to enter the United States. Loomer defended her stance by explaining that her views are aimed at safeguarding American interests and citizens. “My job is to speak for Americans and to stand up for American interests, and our immigration laws have been exploited and abused, and our labor laws have also been exploited and abused,” she argued.
The exchange intensified towards the end of the discussion when Sardesai directly challenged Loomer on specific past statements. He read aloud a 2024 tweet in which Loomer had speculated that the White House would “smell like curry” if then-Vice President Kamala Harris were to become president. Loomer had also written that the U.S. was built by “white Europeans, not third-world invaders from India.”
Sardesai accused Loomer of being “brazenly racist and Islamophobic,” asserting that her comments represented “anti-Indianism, worse still Islamophobia, and even worse racism,” sentiments he declared had “no place in today’s world.”
Loomer, however, remained unyielding in her denial of Islamophobia. She insisted that the faith “explicitly calls for the killing of non-Muslims” and declared that “everybody who is not a Muslim should really honestly be fearful of this ideology.”
Further defending her controversial remarks about Kamala Harris, Loomer claimed they were, in fact, “pro-Indian.” She alleged that her comments were a critique of Harris for supposedly downplaying her Indian heritage during the election campaign and instead emphasising her Black heritage to appeal to voters.
There is little indication that Loomer intends to alter her public discourse. On the same Saturday afternoon, she shared a video purportedly showing Muslims in India surrounding a Sikh restaurant and demanding that the establishment sell halal food. Accompanying the video, she posted, “Islam has no place in the West. Are you ok with this @sardesairajdeep? Should Muslims be allowed to terrorise Sikhs who refuse to sell halal food? Are you going to call the Sikhs Islamophobic and racist too?”
Loomer is part of a broader trend among various MAGA-aligned personalities, including elected officials, who have adopted an increasingly aggressive stance against Islam. This heightened rhetoric appears to have intensified in conjunction with the Trump administration’s foreign policy actions, particularly its engagement with Iran. Following joint strikes by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, a series of potentially religiously or politically motivated attacks occurred in the United States, prompting investigations by the FBI.
This surge in anti-Islam sentiment has also been evident in other political spheres. Earlier in the week, Senator Tommy Tuberville faced accusations of Islamophobia after sharing an image of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani breaking his Ramadan fast at City Hall. Tuberville juxtaposed this with an image of the 9/11 terror attacks and wrote, “the enemy is inside the gates.”
