When Sriram Krishnan, a celebrated Indian American entrepreneur and tech visionary, was appointed Senior Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump in December 2024, it marked a milestone for immigrant representation in technology and public service.
Yet, instead of being universally celebrated, the appointment became a flashpoint for far-right extremists like the Groypers and provocateurs such as Laura Loomer. These groups used the opportunity to amplify xenophobia and foster division, transforming a historic moment into a battleground for cultural and racial animosity.
Laura Loomer, notorious for her incendiary rhetoric, accused Krishnan and Indian Americans of “stealing jobs” and being part of an imagined immigrant takeover.
Echoing anti-immigrant dog whistles, Loomer’s claims resonated with the Groypers, a far-right online collective that thrives on sowing disruption. Their attacks on Krishnan symbolized their broader disdain for multiculturalism and immigrant success stories in the United States.
The Groypers, led by figures like Nicholas Fuentes, are not just online trolls but a calculated movement within the far-right ecosystem. They employ memes, humor, and irony to cloak their extremist ideology. Using Pepe the Frog—a once-benign internet meme—as their emblem, they propagate white nationalism and reject diversity.
Unlike the disorganized alt-right, the Groypers are strategic, targeting mainstream conservatives and accusing them of betraying “America First” values.
Public figures like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk have frequently faced their provocative tactics, which involve racially charged questions and confrontations designed to go viral.
Indian Americans, like Sriram Krishnan, have become frequent targets for the Groypers due to their success in fields like technology, medicine, and academia. Krishnan’s appointment was no exception, drawing xenophobic attacks on social media, where Groypers spread memes mocking Indian culture and high-skilled immigrants.
This hostility stems from a baseless narrative that immigrants undermine “real Americans,” reframing immigrant success as a threat.
This orchestrated bigotry seeks not only to demean individuals like Krishnan but also to undermine the broader contributions of immigrant communities. The attacks are more than casual racism—they are a deliberate effort to delegitimize the achievements of minorities and promote an exclusionary vision of America.
What makes the Groypers particularly insidious is their ability to operate in the blurred lines between humor and hate. They use irony and absurd memes as vehicles for toxic ideologies, normalizing bigotry while recruiting impressionable youth.
A seemingly innocent joke mocking Krishnan can quickly go viral, spreading extremist narratives to a wider audience. Critics face the dual challenge of calling out this hate without being dismissed as humorless or hypersensitive.
Krishnan’s appointment and the vitriolic response it generated reflect the stakes of combating online extremism. The Groypers highlight the radicalization pipelines thriving in unregulated digital spaces, where jokes can lead to entrenched ideologies.
Confronting this movement requires vigilance to protect the values of inclusion and opportunity that immigrant communities embody.
