Musk and Ramaswamy clash with Trump supporters over support for H-1B work visas

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the heads of President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, are clashing with some of Trump’s far-right supporters over their support of H-1B visas that allow skilled foreign workers to work in America .

The debate was sparked over the holiday season when Laura Loomer, a conservative social media personality who was criticized while traveling with Trump on some campaign stops, criticized Trump’s appointment of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence criticized.

Loomer criticized a post by Krishnan advocating lifting country caps on green cards, calling the designation “deeply troubling,” sparking an online battle between business leaders who say work visas are essential to employing highly skilled foreign workers and Trump led advocates arguing it was a way for business leaders to get cheap labor rather than provide job opportunities for Americans.

Both Ramaswamy and Musk have appeared in numerous posts on

“Our American culture has worshiped mediocrity over excellence for far too long (at least since the 1990s and probably longer). This doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG,” Ramaswamy posted on X.

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

Musk, who said he once worked in the United States on an H-1B visa, said he relies on these work visas to operate his technology companies and that they are essential because of the number of skilled workers required for the rise of new technologies.

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans, and we do, because it’s MUCH easier than going through the incredibly tedious and slow work visa process,” he posted. “However, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.” Loomer and other far-right conservatives have also argued that expanding such programs would run counter to Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

While they and others accused Musk and Ramaswamy of obstructing Trump’s aggressive immigration proposals, the business leaders argued that such reforms would not hamper the program’s comprehensive review process.

“Perhaps this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to the fact that immigration of the top ~0.1% of engineering talent via legal immigration is critical to America’s continued success,” Musk wrote on X.

“It’s like using the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your entire team (which is mostly American!) win the NBA,” he said, referring to two foreign-born basketball stars.

Now business leaders are accused of using Trump for their personal gain.

“We are replacing a third world technology invasion with a third world migrant invasion. Same shit,” Loomer posted on left-wing tech billionaires who deep down hate Trump.”

The division among conservatives on the issue was also highlighted by former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who opposed a post by Ramaswamy and argued that American workers should be given priority over foreigners.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she said. “You just have to look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should invest in and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.”

In June, David Sacks, the incoming president’s incoming AI and crypto czar, interviewed Trump for his “All In” podcast and asked Trump whether he would expand H-1B work visas for tech workers after the border was fixed – and he would to which Trump said “yes.”

In the same episode, Trump also promised to give all international graduates a green card, saying, “What I want and what I’m going to do is get you a college degree, which I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma.” , a green card to stay in this country. This also includes junior colleges.

His campaign later reneged on that promise and said there would be a review process.

“He believes that only after such a review should we retain the most qualified graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, said in a statement to ABC News at the time. “This would apply only to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”

ABC News’ Zohren Shah contributed to this report.