Trump Breaks His Silence On The H-1B Visa Controversy
President-elect Donald Trump has voiced his support for the H-1B visa program, a stance shared by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, igniting widespread debate.
The "MAGA world" has experienced internal conflict this past week after Musk, alongside Department of Government Efficiency head Vivek Ramaswamy, expressed their endorsement of the program.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told The New York Post regarding the program that permits companies to employ foreign workers for specialized roles.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he added.
The controversy began when Musk defended the program on X (formerly Twitter) in response to criticism.
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk said.
“Take a big step back and F–K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” he added, quoting a line from the comedy movie Tropic Thunder.
Ramaswamy fueled the debate further by supporting the program and critiquing American cultural values.
Ramaswamy argued that tech companies often prefer “foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans” not because of an “innate American IQ deficit” but due to cultural issues in the U.S.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he stated.
He continued, “More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of Friends. More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less ‘chillin.’”
“Fact: I know multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates,” he noted.
“More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of Friends. More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less ‘chillin.’ More extracurriculars, less ‘hanging out at the mall.’ Most normal American parents look skeptically at ‘those kinds of parents.’ More normal American kids view such ‘those kinds of kids’ with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve,” he added.
Republican commentator Scott Jennings defended Musk and Ramaswamy during an appearance on CNN’s The Lead.
“Look, there’s always been a push and pull on this in the Republican Party. I think there’s a way to work this out and solve it,” Jennings remarked.
“I think what a lot of people would say is, Elon Musk was making this point: if you take the top 1% or the top 0.1% of the most talented engineering people from other countries, that’s perfectly fine. H-1B visas for that, they’re unique, they have unique talent, unique innovative skills, fine,” he elaborated.
“If you’re using the H-1B program to abuse it, to recruit interns, accountants, other people that easily could be recruited from the United States of America, all because you just want to do it cheaper, that’s not fine,” he clarified.
“So I think what a lot of people in the party want to do is eliminate the fraud in this H-1B program, retain the top engineering talent, and there’s a way to do this,” Jennings emphasized.
“What Ramaswamy did yesterday was not a great communications exercise, and it did anger a lot of people in the president’s coalition, and I think rightfully so,” he concluded.