Indian-American comedian explains why Trump appeals to some members of community

Comedian Zarna Garg spoke to "The Daily Beast Podcast" on Sunday about why President Donald Trump appealed to some members of the Indian community, citing concerns with former President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

"When it comes to immigration, Indian people, by and large, are legal immigrants in America. Which means it was years of waiting, years of applying paperwork. There are hundreds and thousands of verifications, and submit this and submit that. So the whole illegal immigration thing was something that we never really got on board, but we did not understand what was happening during the Biden administration," told host Joanna Coles.

Garg was born in India and immigrated to the U.S. She started comedy in 2019 on a whim when her daughter, Zoya Garg, "forced" her into her first open mic in New York City.

"We could not understand why they were not taking this seriously, because, ask any Indian person. We have relatives who have been waiting 15 years, in line, because that's the right thing to do. And then yet it felt like anybody who was breaking the law was getting rewarded," Garg told Coles.

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However, Garg said she disagreed with Trump's approach to immigration policy.

"I don't think he should be doing things the way he's doing them. I have a problem with his execution, but a lot of the problems that he has highlighted are real problems - and just saying that the problem doesn't exist is not going to make them go away," she said.

Zoya Garg also appeared on the podcast with her mom, and explained that Trump appealed to many in the community as a business person.

"What was admirable was that President Trump could be seen as like a business person, because that is something that Indian people can understand and aspire to in their own families constantly," she said.

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Zarna brought up the Biden administration again later in the discussion.

"I will tell you that during the Biden administration, we were, the Indian community, the immigrant community, that worked, got work visas and stuff to come here, was like, how is this going on? Like what is happening at the [southern] border and the [northern] border," she said.

Garg explained that she often encountered people abroad who like to criticize Trump, "especially the Europeans," but many questioned what was going on at the U.S. border.

"They love trashing Trump, and they're right for a lot of it. But they all were like, 'what is going on with your border? Like, you cannot just walk into Switzerland.' You just cannot. You cannot just walk into Canada, forget anybody else. You cannot walk into India," she said.

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At one point she gave a "hot take," saying the "Indian community loves Trump. It is what it is. The Indian community loves Trump. We don't have the problems with him that a lot of people in America have."

Asked why, she said, "All our politicians are crooked back home, so that just seems to be a job requirement," as her daughter laughed.

Garg spoke to Fox News Digital in July about her career and said, "This is a country that looks at a person like me and says, 'we want to hear what you have to say.'"

She said she did not think her career would be possible in India. She told Fox News Digital, "That's what makes America, America."

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington, D.C., released a survey in October 2024 that found Indian-Americans largely support the Democratic Party. However, the respondents that identified as Democrats dropped from 56% in 2020 to 47% in 2024, the survey found. The respondents who identified as Republican remain mostly unchanged in the survey, but the share of Independents increased in 2024 from 2020.