Shalabh Kumar, founding chairman of the Republican Hindu Coalition, recently emerged as one of the biggest financial backers of Donald Trump, who has become the Republican nominee in the 2016 United States presidential race. Kumar, who will give $898,800 to the Trump campaign said that this alliance between the Coalition and Donald Trump is an indicator that the latter is not racist, despite reports to the contrary.
The maximum permitted individual donation is $494,800 but that can be doubled by donating under the name of a spouse, a tactic that Kumar used. "This is only the seed money, " he said in an interview. He's even okay with Trump's Indian accent and remark about Indian call centres because Kumar has "seen his heart".
In the video above, Kumar puts forth his endorsement of Donald Trump in June because "Trump is a businessman and is aligned with our four Fs: Free Enterprise, Fiscal Discipline, strong Family Values and Firm stand against terrorism."
Here's one of Trump's firm stands on terrorists and family values: "I would knock the hell out of ISIS… [and] when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families". He later reiterated the point and then showed more of his family values by reversing his stance. And for all his fiscal discipline, Trump has had four bankruptcies in the last 25 years.
Kumar goes on to say that Donald Trump is like former US president Ronald Reagan who "ended communism and 1/3rd of the world got free".
The Indian-American immigrated to the US in 1969 and used to be a Democrat until a personal meeting with Reagan, similar to a personal meeting with Trump last week that cleared all his doubts and made him want to complete the large donation. "I may be the first Indian-American Republican in the country," he said. The only problem with Republicans? "They think more with the brain than with the heart."
Kumar may be the first Indian-American Republican, but it seems like he has brethren in another party closer to home.
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