Via youtube.com A dance reenactment of a terror attack before Trump took the stage at the Republican Hindu Coalition.

EDISON, New Jersey — This was the lightest, most normal, political event Donald Trump has led in days: a cheerful, policy-focused, speech full of garden-variety pandering ("I am a big fan of Hindu and I am a big fan of India. Big big fan"), and cheers from a friendly crowd mostly here for the Bollywood music and dance.

Trump appealed to Indian-Americans first on the basis of what he described as shared enemies.

"We will stand shoulder to shoulder with India in sharing intelligence and keeping our people safe mutually," he said, before blaming his opponent for some of it. "This is so important in the age of ISIS, the barbaric threat Hillary Clinton has unleashed on the entire world." The host of the event, Republican Hindu Coalition chairman Shalli Kumar, had introduced Trump with the promise that he would "help Indians obtain green cards faster."

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Trump then stuck to a prepared speech mixing his standard promises to cut regulation and clamp down on trade and immigration with praise for India's nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, and to their shared promise to cut bureaucracy. The event, titled Hindus United Against Terror, was a benefit for victims of Muslim terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere in the subcontinent, and anti-Muslim sentiment wasn't hard to find. As the event warmed up, a man who said he was a convert to Hinduism was screaming at anti-Trump protesters: "If you support Muslims, you support rape culture." And while the crowd was largely there for the spectacle of Bollywood and other Indian stars singing and dancing — which the substantial contingent of white Trump supporters in the front rows also appeared to enjoy — terrorism was also a subtext. One dance featured masked terrorists seizing two dancing couples before they were themselves gunned down by dancing police. The event was, however, a normal political stop in another way as well: Kumar is one of Trump's relatively few major fundraisers, and his short appearance had the feel of a favor returned. Trump's connection to the Hindu nationalists fits neatly into a top aide's vision of Trump is part of a global nationalist movement. “Modi’s great victory was very much based on these kind of Reaganesque principles," campaign chairman Steve Bannon said in a 2014 speech. "So I think this is a global revolt."



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