One high-ranking member of President Donald Trump's administration is now being subjected to a fusillade of racist insults from Trump supporters.
MS NOW columnist Ja'han Jones wrote Friday that Madhu Gottumukkala — who is Trump's acting head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — is the latest target of far-right rage after he was caught in a scandal. According to Politico, Gottumukkala uploaded sensitive government documents to a public version of ChatGPT. None of the documents were classified, but they were reportedly classified as "for official use only."
in the summer of 2025. CISA employees reportedly administered a polygraph test to Gottumukkala after he requested "highly sensitive cyber intelligence." Gottumukkala failed that test, and the six employees who administered it were put on paid leave. In response to the news about Gottumukkala uploading the documents to ChatGPT, Andrew Torba — a prominent MAGA influencer who also founded far-right website Gab — wrote: "You could pick any random midwestern White guy from a corn field and he would be an infinitely more qualified candidate for this job."
"Foreign born immigrants are in charge of America's cyber defense and leaking sensitive documents," the official account for anti-immigration group Providence Society tweeted. "Americans deserve better."
Other X users responded to the news by accusing Gottumukkala's "demographic" of "fraudulent and dishonest scheming," making crude references to the Indian American business owner on The Simpsons and even responding to Gottumukkala's name with an image of Adolf Hitler. One X user who described themselves in their bio as a "Heritage American" posted an image of the signing of the Declaration of Independence while commenting: "No one in this picture was named Madhu Gottumukkala."
Jones observed that the racist criticism of Gottumukkala comes in sharp contrast to other Trump administration scandals committed by predominantly white men. The MS NOW columnist pointed out that when Trump Cabinet officials were caught accidentally sharing secret war plans with a journalist, none of them were insulted based on their ethnicity.
"So continues a trend that I and some of my MS NOW colleagues have written about previously: MAGA influencers attacking prominent Indian Americans who support Trump for unmistakably racist reasons," Jones wrote. "FBI Director Kash Patel has faced such fury. Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has, too. And now we can add Madhu Gottumukkala to this list as well."


