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Aug 26: Republican nominee Donald Trump will address Hindu American supporters at a rally in New Jersey just two days before the first presidential debate next month. Trump is scheduled to meet the community on September 24. This is the first address by Trump to the community. The event is titled “Humanity united against terror” and is planned at a venue in New jersey which can seat 17,500 people.
“Trump will be with us for nearly four hours,” Shalabh Kumar, an Illinois businessman whose year-old outfit Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC) is hosting the event, told Hindustan Times.
As per a AFP report, about 2 million identify themselves as Hindus in America, while most of them are of Indian descent, others are from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Caribbean and Afghanistan. Although the number of Indian Americans is estimated to be around 3 million only a third of them said to be voters, of which most vote Democratic. This is despite the fact that only two Indian Americans, Nikki Haley in South Carolina and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, who were both Republicans were ever elected governors. (ALSO READ- No pathway for legal status for illegal immigrants: Donald Trump)
As per the HT report, Trump ready agreed to attend the event when he met Kumar in July. “He told me India was a great country, he liked Indian people,” Kumar said. He also said that Trump found Hindus to be peace-loving people.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is the honorary chairman of RHC, whose inauguration in 2015 was attended by many senior leaders. When asked if organisers will be able to find enough people for the event, Kumar, said, “Oh there will be plenty of people don’t worry, we will be flooded.”
Some Bollywood stars are also expected at the event. Kumar said that Trump was fine with idea and said, “he said Indian people are beautiful”.
Amar D Amar, a New Jersey professor who co-founded and heads Indian Americans for Trump 2016, a political action committee, told HT he will be attending too.
He said he was working with RHC and the Republican party to “to do it the right way”. As head of a political action committee, he cannot work directly with the Trump campaign.
Hindu Sena, an Indian right-wing political group, had celebrated Trump’s birthday in India with cake and balloons. They also held placards which read, ‘Long Live Donald Trump’. (ALSO READ- #TeaForTrump: Indian firm supplies green tea to Donald Trump in a bid to purify his mind)
Trump has said several positive and negative statements about India. He once described India as a necessary check to nuclear-armed Pakistan. He also said that India is among several countries stealing jobs from the United States. Earlier Trump had made fun of India’s call center workers and accused the country of stealing US jobs, later he issued a clarification in it. However, he continues to have fans in India.
A separate movement of ‘Hindus for Trump’ has been gaining speed on Twitter and Facebook recently. Their Facebook page can be seen promoting Trump in unique style. They go by the handle @USAHindus4Trump, and have started #HindusForTrump, explaining why they are support him.
Trump is seen sitting in a Yoga posture, on something that vaguely resembles a lotus with petals in colours of the American flag.
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