American political activist and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer’s first visit to India was nothing short of a controversy in itself. The staunch Donald Trump loyalist, who’s made it a habit to openly project her Islamophobic and anti-India comments on X, was left with no option but to address certain tweets she appeared to have deleted before her attendance at India Today Conclave 2026 on Saturday.

As a firm believer of the ‘America First’ agenda, Loomer has often disregarded the ‘specialty occupation’s H-1B visa category, which has been largely responsible for importing highly-skilled talent from India to the US. Her vitriolic commentary tied to work visa and immigration laws also made it to the conversation on Saturday, as she said that “bad blood” surrounding H-1B hiring was created by a sense of “entitlement” and not “anti-India” comments.

Laura Loomer says ‘no hatred for Indians’

Moderators at the Indian media event didn’t shy away from bringing up her old tweets and hashtags like “#GoBacktoIndia” targeting even Indian-origin US Congress members. Ahead of her arrival in New Delhi, her rants on X about Indians appeared to have been deleted from the platform altogether.

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Responding to that controversial series of tweets she made these past few years, Loomer blamed it on the Elon Musk-led SNS platform for locking her account. When asked about the deleted anti-India comments, she asserted that while she was not going to apologise for her criticism of the non-immigrant H-1B visa, she admitted that she shouldn’t have said certain things. To back her claims, Loomer asserted that she harboured no hatred for Indians or Hindus and was rather an “advocate” for Hindus.

Laura Loomer doubles down on H-1B hate

Noting how “education in India is free” (which doesn’t actually stand true for college education), Loomer told moderators at the India Today Conclave 2026 that getting a degree in the US cost thousands of dollars. Speaking on behalf of “young Americans,” she suggested that their resentment towards foreign workers was justified especially since visa categories like H-1B tell them they’re
“not the best and brightest.”

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Swiftly turning the argument towards the boom of artificial intelligence, she laid emphasis on the need to give jobs to Americans in the “age of AI revolution.” As an India Today representative called her out for switching the basis of the debate, he questioned about whether anti-India comments were responsible for creating “bad blood” in the US, even when the non-immigrant visa category benefits Americans too.

At this point, Loomer countered, “bad blood is created by entitlement” and not anti-India comments, pointing to how Americans were working hard and still suffering from unemployment because they’re made to feel as if the “best and brightest need to be imported” from a foreign country. She went on to voice her belief, one that is significantly popular among MAGA members, that immigration laws in the US have been “abused.” And so, she insisted that she wouldn’t apologise for her anti-H-1B rhetoric from the past.

Loomer has repeatedly described Indian tech workers as “third-world invaders” instead of skilled professionals, suggesting they pose a threat to US jobs. A while back, she even publicly criticised Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as a senior AI advisor in the US, saying that he represented “foreign worker influence” and “outsourcing.”

See some of her other old tweets aimed to berating Indians:

Laura Loomer's anti-India tweets.
Laura Loomer’s previous anti-India tweets.