There is “nothing wrong” with American culture.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on Thursday criticized her former Republican presidential primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy for arguing that American culture is to blame for the shortage of U.S.-born engineers.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” Haley wrote in a post on the social platform X. “You just have to look at the border and see how many want what we have.” We should be Americans invest and prioritize them, not in foreign workers.”

Ramaswamy, who is set to become co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk, suggested Thursday that Silicon Valley should hire more foreign-born engineers because American culture has “revered mediocrity over excellence for far too long.” .

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympian or the athlete over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers,” he said.

“This can be our Sputnik moment,” Ramaswamy added. “We have woken up from sleep before and we can do it again. Trump’s election will hopefully mark the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully awakens.”

The back-and-forth between Haley and Ramaswamy is reminiscent of the contradictions the two had on the campaign trail when they vied for the Republican presidential nomination last year.

Haley called the tech entrepreneur “scum” after he brought up her daughter during the third GOP primary debate last November, while Ramaswamy called the former U.N. ambassador a “fascist” during the fourth debate just weeks later.

The latest spat between the two comes as Silicon Valley conservatives, increasingly involved in President-elect Trump’s new administration, are at odds with their fellow Republicans on some immigration policies.

Tech leaders like Musk and Ramaswamy have argued that high-skilled immigration is important to the industry, even as they support Trump’s plans for mass deportations.

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans, and we do, because it is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow process for work visas,” Musk wrote on X on Wednesday. “However, America rules a glaring lack of extremely talented and motivated engineers.”

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