MAGA's 'big tent' is burning down

GOP-fueled hate has grown into a beast ready to consume its maker

- ANITA CHABRIA COLUMNIST

ASSISTANT ATTY. Gen. for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has been the target of racist attacks online.

South Asians have played a prominent role in President Trump's universe, especially in his second term.

Second Lady Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to California to study and never went back. Harmeet Dhillon, born in India and a devout Sikh, is currently his U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. And the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, is (like potential New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani), of Indian descent by way of Uganda.

Some Republicans have taken pride in this kind of diversity, citing it for the gains Trump made in 2024 with Black and Latino voters.

But these days, the MAGA big tent seems to be collapsing fast.

Last week, MAGA had a total anti-Indian meltdown on social media, revealing a deep, ugly racism toward South Asians.

It comes amid the first real rebellion about rampant and increasingly open antisemitism within the MAGAverse, creating a massive rift between traditional conservatives and a younger, rabidly anti-Jewish contingent called groypers whose leader, Nick Fuentes, recently posted that he is "team Hitler." Turns out, when you cultivate a political movement based on hate, at some point the hate is uncontrollable. In fact, that hate needs to be fed to maintain power-even if it means feasting on its own.

This monster of whitemight ugliness is going to dominate policy and politics for the next election, and these now-public fights within the Republican Party represent a new dynamic that will either force it to do some sort of soul searching, or purge it of anything but white Christian nationalism. My bet is on the latter.

But if conservatives ever truly believed in their inclusive talk, then it's time for Republicans to stand up and demand the big Trump tent they were hailing just a few months ago.