Trump has already picked a side in H-1B debate between MAGA and Silicon Valley, he sides with…
A civil war has erupted within Trump World over the contentious issue of visas for highly skilled workers, with President-elect Donald Trump finding himself caught between his anti-immigration MAGA base and his new Silicon Valley allies, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Despite the massive tension less than a month before ascending the Oval chair, Trump appears to have picked a side—leaning toward Silicon Valley’s vision for a more open high-skilled immigration policy.
Back in June, during the ‘All In’ podcast, he proposed, “Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country.”
“I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too.”
How the MAGA civil war started
The debate flared when Trump announced Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as a White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Krishnan faced immediate backlash from MAGA voices after his November post advocating for immigration reform surfaced: “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.”
Far-right commentator Laura Loomer criticized Krishnan, claiming his views supported “foreigners being able to come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”
Musk and Ramaswamy defend H-1B program amid MAGA criticism
H-1B visa program, which grants temporary work authorization to highly skilled foreign professionals, primarily in tech fields. Critics in Trump’s MAGA base argue the program undermines American workers accompanied by overtly racist rhetoric against Indian immigrants, who make up 72% of H-1B recipients.
However, Trump’s tech industry allies, including Musk and Ramaswamy, have defended the need for high-skilled immigration. Musk, who once held an H-1B visa himself, argued, “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. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”
Ramaswamy suggected America’s lack of skilled engineers stems from a culture that “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”