Exclusive: Kansas Shooting Was ‘Overblown’, Says Trump’s Adviser

Speaking exclusively to The Quint, Shalabh Kumar said there are many racially motivated killings in the US.

(L to R) Srinivas Kuchibhotla, Indian engineer who was killed in a racially motivated shooting in Kansas; Shalabh Kumar, Donald Trump’s adviser. (Photo: Altered by The Quint)

“[The Kansas incident] was overblown,” says US President Donald Trump’s adviser, Shalabh Kumar.

An engineer from Hyderabad, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead at a bar in Kansas last month. While the shooting shook the Indian-American community, it took President Trump a while to recognise it as a racial killing and to condemn the attack.

Speaking exclusively to The Quint, Kumar said that there are many racially motivated killings in the US – including in Chicago and in Milwaukee, where several Sikhs were killed in a temple shooting.

He implied that these instances of violence against immigrants – including against Indians – cannot be deemed a direct fallout of Trump’s rhetoric against migrants.

Kumar is a Chicago based Indian-American businessman. But his identity changed after he emerged as the biggest individual donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

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