Ro Khanna Challenges MAGA Voting Indian Americans

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC  — Congressman Ro Khanna has openly challenged Indian Americans who supported Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election to publicly oppose the president’s tariff action against India.

Amid escalating trade tensions between Washington and New Delhi, Khanna took to X to sharply criticize Trump’s move and challenge the MAGA voting members of the community.

“I am waiting for all those Indian Americans who voted for Trump over Harris — you know who you are — to speak out against Trump sabotaging the partnership with blanket tariffs that are harsher than those on China? Anyone willing to speak up?” Khanna wrote.

Khanna’s comments came after author Kapil Komireddi shared his New York Times opinion piece, noting that Trump had “dismantled, almost overnight, Modi’s meticulously crafted image as a globally venerated statesman.” Khanna reposted the observation, adding his own pointed call to action.

The tariffs, which took effect last week, observers warn, could undercut as much as 70 percent of Indian exports to the United States.

Entrepreneur Vinod Khosla also criticized Trump’s approach, calling it an ego-driven maneuver aimed at securing a Nobel Peace Prize nomination from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I did not vote for Trump but this is only about his ego and wanting Modi to nominate him for the Nobel Peace prize,” Khosla posted.

Khanna’s pointed remarks echo concerns raised earlier by Indian-origin Republican Nikki Haley. In an August op-ed for Newsweek, she warned that Trump’s tariff actions threatened to unravel a decades-long friendship between two of the world’s largest democracies, calling India “the only country that can serve as a counterweight to Chinese dominance in Asia.”

Trump, meanwhile, has defended the tariffs, saying India had offered to cut duties on U.S. goods “to nothing” and argued on September 1 that trade had long been a “totally one-sided relationship.”

His comments coincided with \ Modi’s appearance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.