Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy argue with MAGA supporters over skilled worker visas

A multi-day firestorm has erupted over comments from two incoming advisers to President-elect Donald Trump about H-1B temporary worker visas, a carve-out for highly skilled workers that some in the MAGA world say is taking away American jobs.

The fight started before Christmas

The backlash escalated on Thursday when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on Ramaswamy, The Indian-American further said he hopes Trump’s presidency can usher in an American culture that values ​​”hard work over laziness.” Tech executives have called for greater access to the widely used immigrant visa, arguing it is necessary to fill high-skilled tech and other specialized jobs.

Trump advisor Elon Musk, with whom Ramaswamy is joint head of Trump’s future Ministry of Government Efficiency, said yesterday that the number of engineers AND super-motivated people in the USA is far too low. Musk, who was born in South Africa and is a naturalized American citizen , urged people to “think of yourself like a professional sports team: If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you have to recruit top talent wherever they are.” Be. This allows the entire TEAM to win.”

The posts sparked backlash among ardent MAGA supporters who want a tough approach to all forms of immigration and exposed a rift in relations with a right-wing faction of some of Trump’s closest allies and tech advisers.

“If defeat is going to happen, let’s do it now,” Steve Bannon said on his “War Room” show Friday morning, calling many of the arguments for H-1B “a total fraud.”

The Trump transition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich responded to Ramaswamy’s post, writing: “The Woodstock generation managed to grow the aerospace industry, the one before the moon, America was doing great.” The underlying message of her post is that we are all in the We lived in misery until we were rescued by H-1B planes. Then why did everyone want to come here?”

Some tried to negotiate an agreement between the factions, with venture capitalist Shaun Maguire defending Krishnan and writing that “the tech community should also hear MAGA’s arguments,” namely that immigrants “should be skilled and connected to American values” and should fully assimilate.

Cernovich later published an article about Ramaswamy on the campaign trail more than a year ago in which he promised to “destroy” the H-1B system if elected. Ramaswamy retweeted it.

The backlash sparked a broader discussion about how to revitalize lagging American industry. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat responded that the rebirth of at least one example of a “declining” American industry “seems extremely unlikely to emerge from a testing-oriented grindset, not a sleepover or mall mentality.” Douthat had previously retweeted Ramaswamy and suggested that Trump’s new adviser misidentified the cause and misjudged America’s cultural priorities and strengths.

The dispute over high-skilled immigration in the Trump world comes as the Biden administration in its final days released a new executive order to “modernize” the H-1B program, set to take effect on January 17 , just three days before Trump takes office.

Trump has promised to sign deportation orders on his first day in office, and his “border czar,” Tom Homan, told NBC on Thursday in the latest sign that the new administration is focused on immigration: “Family detention if we bring them back.” .” It’s like it’s on the table. We’re not finished with the plans yet.”