--- title: Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweet description: It took President Donald Trump three tries before he recognized Hindus in a White House celebration of Diwali. canonical: https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-13T21:53:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:02:02.387Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweets og:description: It took President Donald Trump three tries before he recognized Hindus in a White House celebration of Diwali. og:url: https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd160f17d7529c7b/69893f0622fb85e49de27281/trump-diwali-hindus.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Attends Diwali Ceremonial Lighting AT The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweets twitter:description: It took President Donald Trump three tries before he recognized Hindus in a White House celebration of Diwali. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd160f17d7529c7b/69893f0622fb85e49de27281/trump-diwali-hindus.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweets by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 13, 2018 9:53 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump (L) lights a diya as Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Navtej Singh Sarna (R) looks on during a Diwali ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House November 13, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump (L) lights a diya as Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Navtej Singh Sarna (R) looks on during a Diwali ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House November 13, 2018 in Washington, DC.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 13, 2018 9:53 PM UTC It took President 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. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1062450942707228672) 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](http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/2020/number/North%5FAmerica/), which projects there will be about 2.5 million Hindus by 2020. In a followup tweet, Trump said it was “my great honor to host a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1062455263247155200) Trump initial omission of Hindus sparked some concern online. > [](https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1062454554854375428) > [](https://twitter.com/thesharma21/status/1062460104644222976) > [](https://twitter.com/IMishamodi/status/1062459979771326464) > [](https://twitter.com/sohnianika/status/1062459965732982787) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/"},"headline":"President Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweets","datePublished":"2018-11-13T21:53:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:02:02.387Z","description":"It took President Donald Trump three tries before he recognized Hindus in a White House celebration of Diwali.","url":"https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd160f17d7529c7b/69893f0622fb85e49de27281/trump-diwali-hindus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd160f17d7529c7b/69893f0622fb85e49de27281/trump-diwali-hindus.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Attends Diwali Ceremonial Lighting AT The White House","caption":"President Trump Attends Diwali Ceremonial Lighting AT The White House","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5453718/trump-diwali-tweet-no-hindus/","name":"President Trump Leaves Out Hindus in Diwali Tweets"}}]}] ```