Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are clashing online over a visa program aimed at bringing skilled tech workers to the US – a preview of potential tensions in the incoming Trump White House.
In Thursday’s post, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped by Trump to cut government spending, defended the H-1B visa program and criticized American parenting practices.
“Our American culture has valued gentleness over virtue,” Ramawamy wrote in a lengthy blog post saying foreign workers boost America’s economic competitiveness.
But the post quickly attracted backlash from Trump supporters who are staunchly opposed to immigration of any kind.
The row played out online over the holidays, as mainstream Republicans and far-right influences joined the criticism.
Ramaswamy’s vision for skilled worker visas was supported by Elon Musk, the tech billionaire appointed to co-chair the proposed “Department of Public Works.”
Focusing on American culture, Ramaswamy wrote: “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champion, or the joker over the valedictorian.” [the top student in a class]it won’t produce the best engineers.”
But Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations and Republican presidential candidate, argued against the tech giants.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” he wrote in response to X. “All you have to do is look across the border and see how many want what we have. We have to invest in and prioritize American people, not foreign workers.”
Haley, who like Ramaswamy was born to Indian immigrants, was joined in opposing the visa program by right-wing accounts online.
Laura Loomer, an anti-Islamic activist who often spreads conspiracy theories but is also known for her staunch support for Trump, led the online charge with a post that has been viewed millions of times.
Earlier in the week, Loomer criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born businessman, as the White House’s top adviser on artificial intelligence. Loomer wrote that Krishnan was a “leftist” and “directly opposed to Trump’s America First agenda”.
Enjoyed by right-wing X accounts, he also called Indian immigrants “invaders” and directed racist tropes at Krishnan.
Loomer then accused Musk, who owns X, of “investigating” him for allegedly limiting responses to his posts on the network and kicking him out of the paid program.
Echoing Trump’s criticism of the X boss’s influence, he wrote: “‘President Musk’ is starting to look real… Free speech is an illusion.”
Musk at the moment protect the H-1B visa program as attracting the “top ~0.1%” of engineering talent”.
“Thinking of America as a sports team that has been winning for a long time and wants to keep winning makes sense,” he tweeted.
But online critics have posted screenshots of job postings at his companies filled with people on H1-B visas, showing salaries of $200,000 and under, and say the hiring is not a talent pool but a way to capture US wages. -born workers.
The number of H-1B visas issued is up to 65,000 per year and another 20,000 for people with advanced degrees from US institutions.
The latest research by Boundlessimmigration company, shows that about 73% of H-1B visas are issued to Indian nationals, while 12% are issued to Chinese nationals.
Trump has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants will begin immediately after taking office. He has been a critic of the H-1B program and strengthened the validity of that visaa during his first term.
His vice president, JD Vance, also campaigned against the plan, but he has close ties to the tech world. In his previous career as a venture capitalist, Vance financed startups that hired workers on H-1B visas.
In recent days, the president-elect has again denied that he is under the influence of Musk and other billionaires who supported his campaign.
On Sunday, Trump told a conference of conservatives in Arizona that he was not under Musk’s thumb.
“You know, they’re on a new path,” he told the crowd at AmericaFest, organized by Turning Point USA. “All lies are different. The new one is that President Trump has given Elon Musk the position of president.”
“No, no, that’s not possible,” “Oh! “He won’t be president.”
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