‘Should we send him back?’: Congressman’s racist remark backfires after picture of his father-in-law emerges

It’s one of life’s dark ironies that both Donald Trump and JD Vance met their wives because of the nation’s (formerly) welcoming attitude to immigrants. Melania Trump was born in Yugoslavia and made her way to the U.S. in 1996 to pursue a modeling career, while Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian parents who left Andhra Pradesh to pursue a new life in the 1980s.

Update: This article has been edited to correct the origin of the original post.

MAGA is, of course, firmly behind anything that ups cruelty and hatred against the modern-day equivalents of his wife’s parents. Now that racism has got Congressman Brandon Gill, whose wife is Danielle D’Souza, in a situation that’s going to make the next dinner with his in-laws even more awkward than they already are.

The latest MAGA hate figure is triumphant New York primary candidate Zohran Mamdani, whose promises of a rent freeze and free bus fares apparently put him somewhere between Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin for Republicans.

Gill thought he’d spotted an easy target when Mamdani appeared in a video eating with his hands, as is traditional across much of the rest of the world. Gill then promptly announced that “civilized people in America don’t eat like this”. Y’know, some of that old-timey Victorian-style purestrain racism:

Civilized people in America don’t eat like this.

If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World. https://t.co/TYQkcr0nFE

— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) June 30, 2025

Angry in-laws incoming

Then people arrived with the receipts in the form of a picture of Gill’s father-in-law (and conservative conspiracy theorist) Dinesh D’Souza, you guessed it, eating some delicious-looking Indian food with his hands. This is, of course, incredibly common amongst South Asian families, and if you go in with cutlery, expect to see some auntie across the table shaking her head in disappointment.

Here’s your father in law eating Naan with his hands. Should we send him back? https://t.co/wUHCS0vz4m pic.twitter.com/NKS6pcs11z

— sid 🌹🔆🇨🇦 (@lilbabygandhi) June 30, 2025

As the comments point out, we probably shouldn’t mock Gill on this too much, as judging by his beliefs, there’s a decent chance he would actually deport his in-laws given the chance.

If there’s a lesson here, it’s that maybe you shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses by saying colossally racist things online while being in an interracial marriage with three children. Welcoming people of other races and nationalities to the United States and allowing them to build a new life gave Gill his happy family, so it’s a bit sad that he wants to snatch that away from everyone else.