Dinesh D'Souza
Indian-American political commentator / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (/dɪˈnɛʃ dəˈsuːzə/; born April 25, 1961) is an Indian-American right-wing[1][2][3] political commentator, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist.[20] He has written over a dozen books, several of them New York Times best-sellers.[21][22]
Dinesh D'Souza | |
---|---|
Born | Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (1961-04-25) April 25, 1961 (age 62) Bombay (now Mumbai), India |
Education | Dartmouth College (BA) |
Occupation | Political commentator |
Known for | Right-wing populism, Christian apologetics, political commentary, and filmmaking |
Political party | Republican |
Spouses | Dixie Brubaker
(m. 1992; div. 2012)Deborah Fancher (m. 2016) |
Children | Danielle D'Souza Gill (daughter) |
Website | www |
Born in Mumbai, D'Souza moved to the United States as an exchange student and graduated from Dartmouth College. He was a policy adviser in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and has been affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution.[5] He became a naturalized citizen in 1991.[23] From 2010 to 2012, he was president of The King's College, a Christian school in New York City, until he resigned after an alleged adultery scandal.[24]
In 2012, D'Souza released the documentary film 2016: Obama's America, an anti-Barack Obama polemic based on his 2010 book The Roots of Obama's Rage; it earned $33 million, making it the highest-grossing conservative documentary of all time and one of the highest-grossing documentaries of any kind.[25][26] He has since released five other documentary films: America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014), Hillary's America (2016), Death of a Nation (2018), Trump Card (2020) and 2000 Mules (2022). D'Souza's films and commentary have generated considerable controversy due to their promotion of conspiracy theories and falsehoods,[31] as well as for their incendiary nature.[21]
In 2012, D'Souza contributed $10,000 to the Senate campaign of Wendy Long on behalf of himself and his wife, agreeing in writing to attribute that contribution as $5,000 from his wife and $5,000 from him. He directed two other people to give Long a total of $20,000 in addition, which he agreed to reimburse, and later did. At the time, the Election Act limited campaign contributions to $5,000 from any individual to any one candidate. Two years later, D'Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony charge of using a "straw donor" to make the illegal campaign contribution.[32][33] He was sentenced to eight months in a halfway house near his home in San Diego, five years' probation, and a $30,000 fine.[34][35] In 2018, D'Souza was issued a pardon by President Donald Trump.[36]