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MAGA CIVIL WAR ERUPTS  
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Emily Brooks and Julia Shapero
December 27, 2024
The Hill
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_ A war between High Tech Corporate leaders and the anti-immigrant
MAGA base. _

Elon Musk, Andrew Harnik/GETTY

 

A Trump World civil war has erupted over visas for highly skilled
workers, with the president-elect’s new tech industry allies like
Elon Musk [[link removed]]and Vivek Ramaswamy
[[link removed]]on one side and the
anti-immigration MAGA base on the other.

The clash is a preview of the challenges in holding the Trump
coalition together as his administration executes his immigration
policy, an issue that drove his 2024 victory.

But while President-elect Trump
[[link removed]]has promised to shut down
illegal immigration at the southern border and start a mass
deportation effort, the latest debate concerns immigrants here legally
— exposing a larger, sometimes racist, anti-immigrant sentiment on
the right.

The debate was sparked
[[link removed]] by
Trump on Sunday when he announced he was appointing Sriram Krishnan to
be a White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Krishnan
quickly came under fire
[[link removed]] for a November
post suggesting immigration changes: “Anything to remove country
caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.”

Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer
[[link removed]]called the comments
“alarming,” [[link removed]]
accusing Krishnan of supporting foreigners being able to “come to
the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM
students.”

The bulk of the discussion began to center on the H-1B visa program
[[link removed]],
an employer-sponsored visa intended for high-skilled professionals
that is used mostly for computer-related and tech jobs. Congress has
capped that program at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for
foreign professionals who graduate with a master’s degree or
doctorate from a U.S. college or university. 

Those in the MAGA base argue that the visa program is used to undercut
American workers.

Some of the online reaction was overtly racist against Indians. By
law, no more than 7 percent of green cards issued per year may be
given to applicants from any one country. The vast majority of
pending applicants
[[link removed]]
are from India. And Indian workers make up the bulk of H-1B
recipients, accounting for 72 percent of those approved in fiscal
2023
[[link removed]].

A wave of Trump supporters in the tech industry, meanwhile, voiced
support for bringing in high-skilled foreign workers.

Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump since the election, argued
in a post on his social platform X that Silicon Valley often turns to
immigrants because there are too few U.S.-born engineers. The tech
billionaire, who was born in South Africa, once held an H-1B visa
himself.

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we
DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful
and slow work visa process,” the Tesla and SpaceX head said.
“HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and
motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy, co-chair of Trump’s new “Department of Government
Efficiency” (DOGE) alongside Musk, previously called to “gut”
[[link removed]]
the H-1B visa program during his own presidential campaign. But he
chimed in on the debate by blaming the lack of U.S.-born engineers on
American culture, suggesting that it has “venerated mediocrity over
excellence for way too long,” pointing to pop culture examples like
the sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and characters Zach and Slater
being “venerated” over the school nerd Screech.

His comments were not received well by fellow conservatives. Former
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley
[[link removed]]slammed Ramaswamy, arguing
that there is “nothing wrong with American workers or American
culture.”

“All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what
we have,” she wrote on X. “We should be investing and prioritizing
in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Other Silicon Valley conservatives, such as venture capitalists David
Sacks and Joe Lonsdale, also weighed in on the debate, arguing in
favor of greater high-skilled immigration. 

Sacks, who is set to serve as White House czar for artificial
intelligence and cryptocurrency, came to Krishnan’s defense and
emphasized that he was calling for the elimination of per-country caps
on green cards, not all limitations on green cards.

“Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a
prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career
leftist’!” Sacks said, responding to Loomer’s comments about
Krishnan.

Lonsdale, who has reportedly been involved in DOGE planning efforts
alongside Musk and Ramaswamy, said he is “against more low-end H1B
immigrants” but argued the U.S. should “win at the talent game.”

Another type of foreign worker visa, the O-1 visa, is designed for
“individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement” and has no
caps, but it is awarded to far fewer individuals every year than H-1B
visas.

The main players aimed to smooth things over. Musk agreed with a
post on X [[link removed]] that
said the H-1B visa system is used to bring in “brilliant
engineers” but is also “poorly implemented and abused like
crazy,” with Musk responding: “Exactly.”

Sacks also seemed keen to bridge the growing divide, emphasizing that
he “completely” trusts incoming White House Deputy chief for
policy Stephen Miller [[link removed]]to
handle immigration policy.

“What I oppose is a baseless witch hunt against a highly qualified
American for a role as A.I. adviser,” he added.

Musk, Ramaswamy and Sacks are part of a growing contingent of Silicon
Valley conservatives
[[link removed]]
who are headed to Washington to join the incoming Trump administration
after supporting the president-elect during the campaign.

While Silicon Valley has long been considered a liberal bastion,
divisions emerged within the industry earlier this year as more tech
executives, including former Democratic donors, backed Trump.

Musk, who poured at least $250 million into the race to boost Trump,
has become a key figure in the president-elect’s inner circle,
beyond his formal position as DOGE co-chair. The tech billionaire
played a central role in tanking a bipartisan deal for year-end
funding in Congress earlier this month, with some jokingly referring
to him as “President Musk.”

The new prominence of Musk in Republican circles adds a layer of
complication to those who oppose him on immigration policy.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
[[link removed]](R-Ga.), who is
set to co-chair a DOGE subcommittee in the next Congress, echoed parts
of Ramaswamy’s call for a stronger culture aimed at work while also
criticizing the H-1B program.

“Put down the selfie light, and go apply for a job and replace the
H1-B visa holders and all the other skilled labor jobs that foreign
workers are taking and American companies are desperately trying to
hire,” Greene posted on X
[[link removed]].

Still, the relatively new alignment between MAGA World and Silicon
Valley conservatives is already showing signs of fraying.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz
[[link removed]](R-Fla.), whom Trump tapped to
serve as his attorney general before bowing out due to an ethics
scandal, argued that conservatives did not ask tech executives to get
involved in immigration policy.

“We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid
the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid’s gender – and the obvious
Biden/Harris economic decline,” Gaetz wrote on X. “We did not ask
them to engineer an immigration policy.”

In a likely subtle response to the division, Miller — an architect
of Trump’s immigration policy in his first term — posted an
excerpt [[link removed]] from
Trump’s 2020 Independence Day eve speech from Mt. Rushmore that said
“only America, no other place” could have produced icons like the
Wright brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.

Ramaswamy sought to find common ground with Miller, arguing in a
repost that this is “exactly the American spirit we need to
revive.”

Trump himself, meanwhile, has been quiet on the issue as the debate
has raged on X, posting on Friday instead about the death of attorney
David Rivkin and the engagement of Fox News
[[link removed]]
hosts Sean Hannity [[link removed]]and
Ainsley Earhardt. 

But Trump in 2016 had criticized
[[link removed]]
the H-1B program, saying it imported foreign workers “for the
explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”
His first term administration aimed to raise wage requirements
[[link removed]] for
H-1B visas, but the rule was ultimately blocked.

* Immigration
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* Elon Musk
[[link removed]]
* Trump
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