Far-right supporters of former President Donald Trump are having a racist meltdown after realizing that Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Trump's running mate J.D. Vance, is not Caucasian.
Usha and J.D. Vance first met at Yale Law School and married in 2014. She is the daughter of Telugu-speaking Indian Hindu immigrants who hail from Andhra Pradesh.
She previously attended the University of Cambridge and served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, the latter when he was still a judge on the District of Columbia Circuit.
But none of these accomplishments—let alone her long relationship with her husband—matter to the MAGA faithful, whose votes J.D. Vance continues to court.
Almost immediately after J.D. Vance was named Trump's vice presidential pick, they showed their racist colors, with one person expressing shock that the Ohio Republican is married to "a brown."
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Additionally, far-right personality Stew Peters suggested J.D. Vance is "not one of us" because of "Indian wife" and their three children who are named Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.
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White nationalist Nick Fuentes—who generated significant controversy in 2022 when he joined rapper Ye for a meeting with Trump that cast more attention on Trump's ties to far-right hate groups—also questioned J.D. Vance's commitment to preserving "white identity."
He suggested the Senator's marriage is evidence of the "Great Replacement," a conspiracy theory that states White European populations and their descendants are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-European peoples:
“Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity? There's a white genocide going on around the world. White people are being systematically replaced in America and Europe through immigration and a much lesser extent through marrying."
"This guy has a non-white wife and a kid named Vivek. This guy is going to be a defender of white identity? I don't think so. This guy is going to defend 'American identity?'
"If he does, he's going to be no better than these other civic nationalists like Vivek Ramaswamy. How else can you countenance American identity if you have a mixed-up family like that?"
You can hear his remarks in the video below.
Fuentes also seized on past comments J.D. Vance made about his wife not being a practicing Christian, asking:
"What kind of family is this?"
You can see his post below.
No one was surprised by the racism coming out of a political movement already known to be widely racist and exclusionary.
Usha Vance was portrayed by Indian actor Freida Pinto in director Ron Howard's adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy, Vance's memoir that shot to the top of the bestseller lists and made him for a time the de-facto spokesperson for rural America.
She has previously appeared on Newsmax, a decision the New York Times recently observed is evidence that she is "supportive of her husband’s political metamorphosis," a reference to his previous identity as a "Never Trumper" who once described Trump as "America's Hitler" and "cultural heroin" unable to regard the needs of the working class.
Usha Vance most recently worked at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in its San Francisco and D.C. offices. Her work focused on areas such as higher education, local government, entertainment, and technology, according to an archived version of her professional biography, which has since been taken down.
She resigned from her position after Trump selected J.D. Vance as his running mate, stating that she did so "in light of today’s news … to focus on caring for our family."
Despite her husband's record of attacking women's rights by supporting efforts to roll back reproductive freedoms and backing a nationwide abortion ban, J.D. Vance has referred to her as "way more accomplished than I am," calling her a “powerful female voice” and “so impressive.”
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