Donald Trump’s Allies Fight Over H-1B Visas: Complete Timeline

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneurs picked by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, have argued in recent days that big tech companies need to hire skilled workers from abroad because there aren’t enough “motivated” Americans available to fill these positions.

These comments have sparked backlash from Trump’s die-hard MAGA supporters, who support his tough immigration positions.

Discussions about reforms to the H-1B visa program, a class of visas for skilled workers, have intensified recently. Some advocate lifting country-specific caps on green cards to address backlogs of applicants from countries like India.

Once Trump takes office, the divide could potentially reveal whether Trump’s historical base or his new allies in the tech industry have more influence over his administration.

Newsweek emailed the Trump transition official for comment.

The timeline

Sunday

The debate began Sunday after Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his AI policy adviser.

Monday

Laura Loomer, a Trump loyalist and far-right activist with a history of racist comments, criticized the appointment as “deeply troubling.”

She wrote in

Tuesday

Loomer sparked backlash over inflammatory comments he made on X on Tuesday.

In response to a post that said the nation was built by “immigrants who drove innovation,” she wrote that the U.S. was built “by white Europeans” and “not third world invaders from India.” .

In another post, she wrote, “It is not racist against Indians to want the original MAGA policies that I voted for. I voted to reduce H-1B visas. No extension.”

In his response, entrepreneur David Sacks pointed out that Krishnan advocates abolishing country-specific caps on green cards, but not eliminating the caps entirely.

Wednesday

Musk, the world’s richest man who has himself benefited from the H-1B program, wrote on Wednesday in a response to a post on his social media platform “There are engineers

“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the US is far too small,” he wrote. “Think of it like a professional sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you have to recruit top talent, wherever they may be. This allows the entire TEAM to win.”

In another post, he wrote that a “shortage of excellent engineering talent” is a “fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

Loomer accused tech executives like Musk of “throwing money at Mar a Lago to buy influence in the White House so they can set technology policy, limit regulation of China and control our immigration policy.”

Thursday

Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, joined the debate on Thursday and argued in a lengthy post

“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers instead of ‘American’ Native Americans is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and false explanation). Word: culture,” Ramaswamy wrote.

He added that Trump’s election “hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully awakens.” A culture that once again values ​​performance over normalcy, excellence over mediocrity, nerdiness over conformity, hard work over laziness.” “

Ramaswamy’s post sparked backlash from Trump supporters and critics such as Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she wrote.

Musk continued to defend his argument, saying it was a way to complement American workers, not replace them.

“Perhaps this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to the fact that bringing in the top 0.1 percent or so of engineering talent through legal immigration is critical for America to continue to thrive,” he wrote.

He also said that Loomer was “attention seeking.”

She responded that Musk “bought into MAGA five minutes ago.”

In another post, she wrote, “I got you and all your Big Tech friends who are trying to infiltrate the White House to respond and portray themselves as opponents of MAGA immigration policies.”

She added: “You are still not our president. The real president knows H1B visas are bad for America, and the real president is from this country.”

Friday

Loomer suggested that Musk revoked her “verified” status on X in “retaliation.”

“So much for freedom of expression. Pretty totalitarian if you ask me,” she wrote in a post early Friday.

Her post included a screenshot of Musk’s previous post, which said: “Any accounts found to be involved in coordinated attacks on muted/blocked spam target accounts will themselves be categorized – correctly – as spam.”