In his visit to Washington last fortnight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed a new equation in US-India relations: “MAGA + MIGA = MEGA Partnership”.

By aligning India’s development goals with Trump’s signature slogan, Modi aimed to appeal to American conservatives while boasting about India’s rise as a global power. However, beneath the rhetoric of economic cooperation and shared nationalist aspirations lies a fundamental contradiction – one that exposes the fragility of this supposed alliance.

At its core, Trump’s Make America Great Again or MAGA movement has been deeply intertwined with white supremacist ideologies and an exclusionary vision of America. While some Indian-American conservatives have aligned themselves with MAGA politics, often based on a shared Islamophobia and anti-left sentiment, they have failed to recognise the movement’s broader racial and cultural prejudices.

The recent spate of anti-Indian rhetoric from MAGA figures and their supporters, from Silicon Valley to the White House, is a stark reminder that the movement does not see Hindutva supporters as equals, but rather as a convenient, expendable constituency.

Prime Minister Modi’s attempt to merge MAGA with MIGA or Make India Great Again is rooted in the assumption that nationalist movements can find common ground. Both movements center around a romanticised past, economic self-sufficiency and a muscular and majoritarian approach to governance.

However, while Modi’s brand of Hindu nationalism promotes India as a civilisational state with its own historical and cultural superiority, MAGA’s racialised vision of America is fundamentally opposed to such ideas. White nationalist segments of MAGA do not see Indians, Hindutva supporters or otherwise, as partners in their project.

Instead, Indians are often cast as job stealers, cultural outsiders, or, at best, temporary allies in the fight against “woke” ideology.

Recent incidents highlight the widening gulf between Indian MAGA supporters and the movement’s hardline base. Marko Elez, a staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was found to have posted blatantly racist, anti-Indian messages, calling for a “eugenic immigration policy” and urging his social media followers to “normalize Indian hate”.

Instead of condemning such remarks outright, prominent MAGA figures, including Vice President JD Vance, who is married to a woman of Indian origin, came to Elez’s defense, arguing that social media activity should not “ruin a kid’s life”.

This dismissive attitude toward anti-Indian racism within the movement has forced many Indian MAGA supporters to confront a harsh reality: their loyalty to MAGA does not grant them immunity from its deeply ingrained xenophobia.

The fall of biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy serves as a cautionary tale. Once embraced by MAGA circles for his critiques of “woke” culture and his nationalist rhetoric, Ramaswamy quickly found himself ostracised after making remarks about American mediocrity and the cultural discipline of immigrant families.

The moment he suggested that American-born workers were losing out to foreign talent due to cultural laziness rather than a flawed immigration system, MAGA supporters, who had initially celebrated him as proof that the movement was not racist, turned on him.

Ramaswamy’s ouster from Musk’s DOGE underscores the rigid racial hierarchy within MAGA. While the movement is willing to accept non-white figures who reinforce its broader narratives, any deviation from its core ideology leads to immediate ostracisation. The message is clear: Indian-origin figures in the MAGA movement are tolerated only as long as they do not challenge the racialised status quo.

One of the primary contradictions in the MAGA-Hindutva alliance is the question of immigration. Many Indian Americans in tech have supported Trump’s policies, believing that his administration would favor highly skilled immigrants. However, MAGA’s anti-immigrant base sees no distinction between undocumented migrants and legal visa holders, viewing both as threats to American jobs and culture.

The recent uproar over Trump’s handling of H-1B visa policies and his crackdown on birthright citizenship for children of visa holders signals a clear hostility toward Indian immigrants.

Trump’s decision to deport several hundreds of undocumented Indian immigrants in shackles, on military planes, was met with outrage in India but barely a murmur from his loyalists in the Indian-American conservative community.

This silence is telling. While some pro-MAGA Indian Americans have begun to express concern about rising anti-Indian sentiment within the movement, others continue to delude themselves into thinking that they are integral to its future.

The reality is starkly different: MAGA does not prioritise Indian interests, and its base views Indian immigrants as expendable at best, and unwelcome at worst.

Despite these warning signs, many Indian nationalists continue to court MAGA support, believing that Trump’s strongman persona aligns with Modi’s leadership style. What they fail to acknowledge is that Hindu nationalists, in the eyes of white supremacists, are not natural allies but rather useful instruments.

The Indian diaspora in the US has long sought to position itself as a model minority – hardworking, successful, and aligned with conservative values. Yet, history has shown that model minority status is conditional and can be revoked at any time. The growing wave of anti-Indian racism within MAGA is proof that no amount of loyalty can override the fundamental racial biases at play.

Modi’s proclamation of a MEGA partnership between MAGA and MIGA is, at best, a wishful slogan and, at worst, a delusion. The contradictions are too vast to ignore. MAGA thrives on exclusion and racial superiority, while Hindutva envisions a Hindu-dominated but globally respected India. These visions are not just different: they are fundamentally incompatible.

Ashok Swain is a professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, Sweden.