As MAGA creeps up on Silicon Valley, some Indians try to keep a low profile

“Is Donald Trump a bad guy?” asked Niyati Sharma, a seven-year-old, in the middle of a playdate at a friend’s home. She was talking to an eight-year-old Indian neighbour in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“No, he’s not a bad guy,” said her mother. And in a hurried attempt to end the conversation, she added, “We’ll talk about this later, OK?”

The reply had nothing to do with her actual views on Trump, as she proceeded to explain discreetly to the other mother: “I just don’t want Niyati to say these things out loud at school or in the neighbourhood.”

The sentiment may seem odd, expressed in a state as deeply blue as California, which has consistently voted Democrat in every presidential election since 1988. Not only did California vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential elections, the majority of voters in every county in the San Francisco Bay Area polled Democrat. Yet, in every Bay Area county, more residents voted for Trump than they did in 2020.

But like Niyati’s mother, many Indians in America are grappling with the uncertain political climate as well as rapid changes in the cultural landscape around them. (Niyati is not her real name. With Indian immigrants on the radar of Republican supporters,…

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