As Donald Trump pushes for Hindu-American supporters, a group of writers, actors and artists of South Asian descent are countering his message with an ad campaign of their own.。
In a two-minute commercial released Thursday, celebrities like Arjun Gupta, Sheetal Sheth and Utkarsh Ambudkar appeal to immigrant family members who might be considering casting their ballot for the Republican nominee. 。
Through interwoven monologues and clips of Trump's more belligerent moments on the campaign trail, the cast makes the case that Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric, nativist leanings and volatile attitude make him an ill fit for their relatives' cross-cultural backgrounds.。
SEE ALSO:Donald Trump speaks in Hindi in new ad campaign to win over Hindu supporters 。At one point, the ad even suggests a comparison to Adolf Hitler.。
"You came to the United States so that you could have a better life," Sheth says in the video. "Right now, our country is at a crossroads." 。
The release comes a day after the Trump campaign launched a new ad in which the candidate fumbles through a sentence in Hindi and plays up shared fears of extremist terrorism. 。
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While polls say that nearly eight in 10 Indian-Americans either don't support Trump or don't know anything about him, his campaign's message has apparently resonated with a sizable minority of conservative Hindu nationalists who also want to see more aggressive anti-terrorism efforts and crackdowns on undocumented immigration. 。
Explanations for the phenomenon usually draw parallels between Trump's rise and that of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who positioned himself as a politically conservative outsider when running for office.。
Trump has spoken highly of his potential Indian counterpart. 。
"I look forward to working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been very energetic in reforming India’s bureaucracy. Great man," Trump said in his keynote speech at a campaign fundraiser put on by the Republican Hindu Coalition on Saturday. 。
This particular anti-Trump campaign, entitled #VoteAgainstHate, is unique in that it wasn't produced by an ad agency or Super PAC but rather a group of prominent friends who were concerned about the prospect of their first-generation families backing someone they see as a demagogue. 。 "It just shocked me to the point where I had to pull up YouTube videos of things Trump had said to kind of get into their mindset of why are they doing it and what the ramifications were," executive producer Vijay Chattha, a marketing entrepreneur by day, told 。Fusion 。
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