Prominent author faces backlash for racist comments against Republican candidates Ramaswamy and Haley

Ann Coulter, a prominent American author and media pundit is being slammed for making racist comments against the two Indian-American US presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Coulter wrote the comments on X (formerly Twitter) during Wednesday’s Republican debate. She characterised a heated debate between Haley and Ramaswamy as 'Hindu business', NBC reported on Thursday.

“Nikki and Vivek are involved in some Hindu business, it seems,” 61-year-old Coulter wrote on X.

The report suggested that the discussion was not even about religion but rather about US aid to Ukraine and Israel.

The backlash started immediately as Ramaswamy’s senior adviser, Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X, “Ann can tweet whatever she wants to.”

“Vivek shares and lives by the same Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on — and the way Vivek lives his family life offers a positive example for their own children and grandchildren,” McLaughlin added.

Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is a 38-year-old Hindu. While his Republican rival Haley is 51 years old, she was born in a Sikh family and now practices Christianity. Haley has talked about her religion throughout her life.

Coulter is facing backlash from both conservatives and liberals, as a person wrote o n X, “Nikki Haley was born Sikh and is a practising Christian, you racist troglodyte.”

“Completely expected that she would attack them but using a white racist trope invoking a religion is beyond disgusting,” Sangay Mishra said. Mishra is the author of ‘Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans’.

This is not the first time Coulter came into headlines for her racist comments about Nikki Haley. Earlier in February, she faced backlash for telling Haley to “go back to your own country,” during a podcast.

“What’s with the worshipping of the cows? They’re all starving over there,” Coulter said when she featured on the “The Mark Simeone Show” podcast.

“Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?,” Coulter added during the podcast.

Apart from this, Coulter has also called Haley a “bimbo” and a “prepostorous creature.”