Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (/dɪˈnɛʃ dəˈsuːzə/; born April 25, 1961) is an American right-wing[1][2][3] political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author, filmmaker, and convicted felon pardoned by Donald Trump.

[50] D'Souza faced criticism during his time at The Review for authoring an article publicly outing homosexual members of the school's Gay Straight Alliance student organization.

[62] The prepublication version of the book contained a chapter dedicated to those portrayed by D'Souza as authentic racists, including many paleoconservatives, such as prominent philosopher and The Washington Times editor Samuel T. Francis, to whom he attributed several false quotes at the inaugural American Renaissance conference.

In a review article called "The Rise of the New Racism", Finkelman stated that much of what D'Souza says is untrue, and much is only partially true, and described the book as being "like a parody of scholarship, where selected 'facts' are pulled out of any recognizable context, and used to support a particular viewpoint".

In Finkelman's opinion, the book exemplifies a "new racism", which "(1) denies the history of racial oppression in America; (2) rejects biological racism in favor of an attack on black culture; and (3) supports formal, de jure equality in order to attack civil rights laws that prohibit private discrimination and in order to undermine any public policies that might monitor equality and give it substantive meaning".

"[70][71] In the second chapter of his 2002 book, What's So Great About America, D'Souza argues that while colonialism was terrible, it had the unintended consequence of lifting third world countries up to Western civilization.

What I am doing is pointing out a historical fact: despite the corrupt and self-serving motives of [its] practitioners ... colonialism ... proved to be the mechanism that brought millions of nonwhite people into the orbit of Western freedom."

[78] Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times described it as "a nasty stewpot of intellectually untenable premises and irresponsible speculation that frequently reads like a Saturday Night Live parody of the crackpot right.

"[106] Lions Gate Entertainment released America in three theaters on June 27, 2014, and expanded its distribution on the weekend of the U.S. holiday Independence Day on July 4, 2014.

"[111] The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond said the film performed well in its limited theatrical release, "overcoming several negative reviews in the mainstream media".

The critics' consensus on the site reads, "Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party finds Dinesh D'Souza once again preaching to the right-wing choir—albeit less effectively than ever.

"[118] A July 2016 review in Variety characterized D'Souza as "a right-wing conspiracy wingnut, the kind of "thinker" who takes off from Barack Obama birther theories and just keeps going, spinning out a web of comic-book liberal evil.

"[119] Alex Shephard of The New Republic said: Because he is a very dumb man, D'Souza doesn't even make a credible argument that Bill and Hillary are corrupt, even though in many ways it's low-hanging fruit.

John Fund of the National Review stated that "[the film] is over the top in places and definitely selective, but the troubling facts are accurate and extensively documented in the D'Souza book that accompanies the movie."

"[126] D'Souza appeared in the video announcing the film as having won four of the five possible Razzies repeating his view that the nominations were awarded in response to Trump's election victory.

[140] In May 2022, D'Souza released 2000 Mules, a conspiracist political film[141] that falsely alleges Democrat-aligned individuals were paid to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.

[142][143][144] The Dispatch, a conservative[145] online magazine, found that "The film's ballot harvesting theory is full of holes", and mentioned that "D'Souza has a history of promoting false and misleading claims".

[147] Released in October 2023, The Washington Post reported this film "uses falsehoods, misleading interviews and dramatizations to allege federal persecution of Jan. 6 rioters and Christians."

He said liberals' "penchant for interference" had a decided effect in convincing the Carter administration to withdraw support from the Shah, which brought on Muslim fundamentalists' control of the Iranian government.

Twin brothers Manfred and Jonah Wendt, co-founders of the student conservative group Tigers for Liberty, had passed around 600 notices of D'Souza's visit to campus.

He also argues against what he calls the modern liberal belief that "human nature is intrinsically good," and thus that "the great conflicts in the world ... arise out of terrible misunderstandings that can be corrected through ongoing conversation and through the mediation of the United Nations.

"[157] In the book Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (1991), D'Souza argued that intolerance of conservative views is common at many universities.

His debate opponents have included Dan Barker, Christopher Hitchens,[162] Peter Singer,[163] Daniel Dennett,[164] Michael Shermer, David Silverman,[165] and Bart D.

[59][175][185] D'Souza received criticism for the posts,[184] with Charles C. W. Cooke of National Review stating: "Not only is this is [sic] incorrect, it's an attitude that would never be struck about a soldier on, say, Veterans Day ... [E]ven if Parks was a minor player (she wasn't), she'd still deserve to be lionized.

In response to a photo of survivors reacting to Florida lawmakers voting down a proposed ban on assault weapons in the aftermath of the shooting, D'Souza posted "worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs".

[8][190] D'Souza subsequently apologized for the initial tweet, saying that it was "aimed at media manipulation" and that he was being "insensitive to students who lost friends in a terrible tragedy.

"[8][185][192] In February 2021, after the January 6 United States Capitol attack took place, D'Souza suggested that the rioters were little more than "a bunch of rowdy people walking through a hallway".

[197] On October 18, 2012, D'Souza resigned his post at The King's College following a press report that he—despite being married—had shared a hotel room at a Christian conference with another woman and introduced her to others as his fiancée.

[208] On September 23, 2014, the court sentenced D'Souza to five years' probation, eight months incarceration in a halfway house (referred to as a "community confinement center") and a $30,000 fine.

[42][146][210] D'Souza dated fellow conservatives Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter prior to meeting Dixie Brubaker while working at the White House.