Nikki Haley’s son slams ‘creep’ Vivek Ramaswamy for his ‘third-world parenting style’ | Hindustan Times
Nalin Haley, the 24-year-old son of former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, has now targeted her fellow Indian-American Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy in comments about his “parenting style”, labeling it “third-world”.
Nalin Haley has Indian immigrant roots from his mother’s side. (Photo: Instagram/@nalinhaley)
He was reacting on X to a video clip in which Ramaswamy can purportedly be seen advocating year-round school schedule so that parents can save on childcare expenses.
“This creep should not be near any child and we absolutely can’t have his third world parenting style imposed on American kids,” Nalin Haley posted on November 27.
“Third world” is largely seen as an offensive term that originated during the Cold War — coined at first for countries that remained non-aligned with both the US or the Soviet Union — and is often used pejoratively for countries such as India or other Asian/African regions.
Dig over ‘gay bill’ comment
In his X post, Nalin Haley also attached a screenshot of a 2022 post by Vivek Ramaswamy. In that post, Ramaswamy took a dig at the naming of a legislation that prohibited sex education for kids up to the third grade.
Ramaswamy had written: “Republicans should use more rhymes when naming their laws. Instead of ‘don’t say gay,’ they should’ve called it ‘wait until 8.’ As in, wait until kids turn 8 years old before public schools teach them about sex. That would have avoided a national fuss about nothing.”
These words have apparently been termed “creepy” by Nalin Haley now. He said Ramaswamy’s comments mean “wanting to teach 8 year olds about sex” and keeping kids in school during summer.
Ramaswamy’s comments were expressly about how the word ‘gay’ being used for the bill had caused a “fuss about nothing”.
The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, was passed and signed into law in Florida, USA, in March 2022. It prohibited “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade. It was expanded later to all grades, with exceptions for health or reproductive courses. Last year, after a lawsuit was filed against these rules, the Florida authorities clarified that the law only restricts formal teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation, and not generally speaking about these topics.
Not new for Nalin Haley
For Nalin Haley, intensely nationalistic and controversial statements, mostly on immigration and American identity, are not new.
In an interview with Fox News earlier in November, Nalin Haley called for an end to H-1B visas. These visas are granted to highly skilled foreign workers, with most recipients coming from India.
Asked about his anti-H-1B stance given his Indian and immigrant heritage, Haley emphasised: “At the end of the day, my loyalty is to America.”
He argued that foreign worker visas harm American employment prospects.
He further insisted that immigrants must “assimilate”. Referring to the policies under the Obama administration of the Democratic Party, Haley argued that new arrivals should not believe they can stay without changing. “No, you need to assimilate. And you need to act like an American and support American values and support American workers and American people,” he said.
Nalin Haley’s immigrant roots
Also, speaking on a podcast with Tucker Carlson, he triggered a widespread discussion by stating that naturalised US citizens should not be allowed to hold public office. His reasoning was that “growing up here is a big part of understanding the country”.
He has also called for strict limits on foreign students in American universities, claiming that some international students are “spies for foreign governments”.
These comments earlier divided social media users. While some supported restricting public office to American-born citizens for reasons of “national security” and ”avoiding corruption”, there were many who highlighted an irony. One X user pointed out that his mother, Nikki Haley (born Nimrata Randhawa), owes her political career to the same immigrant roots her son is now warning against.
