The online rift over the H-1B skilled-worker visa program signifies a potential wedge between Trump’s core base and his new Silicon Valley supporters.
The controversy spread across X after far-right activist Laura Loomer on Monday criticized Trump’s choice to name Sriram Krishnan, a technology entrepreneur and investor who was born in India, as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence. She pointed to Krishnan’s previous support for removing some caps on green cards and easing the ability of skilled foreign workers to come to the United States. The policy is “in direct opposition” to Trump’s agenda, Loomer wrote.
Musk,
who once held an H-1B visa and has relied on the program to employ thousands of Tesla employees, said recruiting foreign workers is a crucial way technology companies recruit the best engineering talent to compete globally. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote on X on Christmas. “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.”
Trump has offered few specifics about how he will address high-skilled immigration in the tech industry during his second term.
On a June episode of the “All In” podcast, which is co-hosted by Sacks, Trump said he would automatically give a green card to every international student with a college diploma.
Technology companies are particularly reliant on H-1B visas — which are capped at 85,000 new visas annually — to help recruit talent. Amazon, with 3,871 new H-1B employees, had the most approved new petitions in 2024, according to
data compiled by the nonpartisan organization National Foundation for American Policy. Google had 1,058 approved applications, and Tesla had 742, the data showed. (The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.)
America loves jocks [and prom queens], and that's why we don't have any good engineers... or something.
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The West is decadent. We must import superior foreign culture.
Now Ramaswamy and his fellow Trump-aligned tech bros have taken to defending immigration programs for skilled workers and students as they find themselves at odds with the nationalist front of the MAGA movement. This was bound to happen, it’s just a little surprising that the war broke out before Trump even took office—and on Christmas day, no less.
Trump ally
Laura Loomer, New York Young Republican Club president
Gavin Wax, InfoWars host
Owen Shroyer, and the pro-Trump ConservativePAC were all stripped of their verification badges after criticizing Musk’s controversial remarks about American workers and foreign H-1B visa holders.
“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,”
wrote Loomer in a post on Musk’s social network X, formerly known as Twitter:
Elon has decided to retaliate by removing my blue check and demonetizing me.
In another post, Wax
joked, “Okay let me try this and see if I get my badge back: Americans are stupid and lazy and have created nothing. India is a superpower and has the smartest and best talent the world has ever seen. America needs 1 billion new migrants to bring us the fruits of civilization. We are stupid and must repent!”
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Not a part of DOGE (I hope), but I can't help dunking on convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza:
D’Souza made his declaration just a few days after President-elect
Donald Trumpselected
Sriram Krishnan to serve as senior White House policy advisor on artificial intelligence. Krishnan’s elevation sparked a
backlash from the far right, which has targeted Krishnan for his race and views on immigration.