President-elect Donald Trump appeared to side with technology bosses Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in a row over a visa programme that brings skilled workers to the US.
Trump told the New York Post on Saturday that he “always liked” H-1B visas and hired guest workers under the scheme – even though he’s previously been critical of the programme.
He was wading into a debate that has pitted his advisors from the tech world against Republicans who want a harder line on all forms of immigration.
The argument broke out after Ramaswamy, tapped by Trump along with Musk to slash government spending, blamed American culture for US firms deciding to hire skilled workers from other countries.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” Ramaswamy wrote in a long X post that argued that foreign workers improve the US economy.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian [the top student in a class], will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote.
The post attracted backlash from anti-immigrant Trump supporters, and Ramaswamy later clarified that he believed “the H-1B system is badly broken & should be replaced”.
After the argument raged online for days, Trump told the Post: “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favour of the visas. That’s why we have them.”
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he said.
Trump moved to restrict access to the H-1B programme during his first term.
Both the president-elect and his running mate JD Vance have been critical of the visas in the past, although Vance has close ties to the tech world and in his previous career as a venture capitalist funded start-ups that hired workers with H-1B visas.
Ramaswamy’s assertions led to a full-blown row online over the holidays, as mainstream Republicans and far-right influencers joined in criticising him and other wealthy figures in Trump’s inner circle.
“If we are going to have a throwdown, let’s have it now,” prominent Trump supporter Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Friday. He went on to call the Republican claims of support of the H-1B programme a “total scam”.
Ramaswamy’s perceived view of skilled worker visas was backed by Elon Musk, the X, Tesla and SpaceX boss selected to co-direct Trump’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency”.
Musk defended the H-1B visa programme as attracting the “top ~0.1%” of engineering talent”.
“Thinking of America as a pro sports team that has been winning for a long time and wants to keep winning is the right mental construct,” he wrote.
Critics online posted screenshots of job postings at Musk’s companies filled by people with H1-B visas, showing salaries of $200,000 and much less, and argued these hires did not constitute an elite talent pool but rather a way to hold down the wages of US-born workers.
Musk then shot back at “contemptible fools”, saying he was referring to “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists”.
“They will absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed,” he wrote.
He later swore at one of his critics and said he would “go to war” to defend the visa programme.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a former Republican presidential candidate, became a prominent voice arguing against Ramaswamy and Musk.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she wrote in response on X. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”
Haley, who like Ramaswamy was born to Indian immigrants, was joined in opposing the visa programme by far-right accounts online.
Laura Loomer, an anti-Islam activist who regularly spreads conspiracy theories but is also known for her unwavering support of Trump, led the online charge with posts viewed millions of times.
Earlier in the week, Loomer criticised Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan, an India-born entrepreneur, as the White House senior advisor on artificial intelligence. Loomer wrote that Krishnan was a “career leftist” who is “in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda”.
Cheered on by far-right X accounts, she also called Indian immigrants “invaders” and directed racist tropes at Krishnan.
Loomer then accused Musk, who owns X, of “censorship” for allegedly restricting replies to her posts on the network and removing her from a paid premium programme.
Echoing criticisms of Trump about the influence of the X boss, she wrote: “‘President Musk’ is starting to look real… Free speech is an illusion.”
On Friday and Saturday, a number of other conservative and far-right accounts also complained that the reach of their messages had been throttled on X.
The number of H-1B visas issued is capped at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s from US institutions.
Recent research by Boundless, an immigration consultancy, indicates that around 73% of the H-1B visas are issued to Indian nationals, with 12% issued to Chinese citizens.
Trump promised that mass deportations of undocumented immigrants will start immediately after he takes office.
In recent days the president-elect also denied that he’s unduly under the influence of Musk and the other billionaires who backed his campaign.
On Sunday, Trump told a conservative conference in Arizona that he was not under Musk’s thumb.
“You know, they’re on a new kick,” he told the crowd at AmericaFest, organised by Turning Point USA. “All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.”
“No, no, that’s not happening,” he said. “He’s not gonna be president.”
By BBC News
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