Politics - News Analysis
Trump Just Made A Humiliating Mistake When Tweeting About Indian Holiday of Diwali
It took Donald Trump THREE tries before he recognized Hindus in a White House celebration of Diwali on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted: “Today, we gathered for Diwali, a holiday observed by Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains throughout the United States & around the world.” As people online pointed out that he glaringly omitted Hindus — a billion people throughout the world for whom Diwali is a major holiday — the tweet was deleted, only to be replaced by a second one that again left out Hindus.
Today, we gathered for Diwali, a holiday observed by Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains throughout the United States & around the world. Hundreds of millions of people have gathered with family & friends to light the Diya and to mark the beginning of a New Year. https://t.co/epHogpTY1A pic.twitter.com/9LUwnhngWJ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
While Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains do observe Diwali, Hindus are among the largest religious group to celebrate the holiday. More than 2 million people in the U.S. identify as Hindu, according to Pew, which projects there will be about 2.5 million Hindus by 2020.
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In a followup tweet, Trump said it was “my great honor to host a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.”
It was my great honor to host a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, in the Roosevelt Room at the @WhiteHouse this afternoon. Very, very special people! https://t.co/kQk7IvpSFo pic.twitter.com/tYlBABg4JF
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Trump’s initial omission of Hindus sparked some concern online:
Trump deleted the original Diwali tribute tweet because it left out Hindus only to post a corrected tweet and still leave out Hindus.
Diwali is literally the most popular festival in Hinduism. https://t.co/NOGZEgtIeD
— siraj hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) November 13, 2018
So after initially not including Hindus in his first Diwali tweet, Trump deletes that tweet and reposts another message. And still leaves out Hindus… https://t.co/4Rw5VLkVUe
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 13, 2018
Trump blows another layup by neglecting to include more than 1 billion Hindus in what should have been an easy statement on Diwali pic.twitter.com/2iyhCbFbfL
— Craig Harrington (@Craigipedia) November 13, 2018
Diwali is primarily celebrated by Hindus and was observed last week on November 7th.
But let's get the date wrong and leave out the primary religious group, because Trump… https://t.co/tXGrs0wx10
— TOᑭ ᖇOᑭE TᖇAViS (@TopRopeTravis) November 13, 2018
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