Associated Press
An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House.
The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies.
The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S.
Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves.
Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns.
Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government, weighed in, defending the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.
It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for.
Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift. His presidential transition team did not respond to questions about positions on visas for highly skilled workers or the debate between his supporters online. Instead, his team instead sent a link to a post on X by longtime adviser and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller that was a transcript of a speech Trump gave in 2020 at Mount Rushmore in which he praised figures and moments from American history.
Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect, was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers.
Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded.
Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.
“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
14 comments
Earl Pitts American
December 28, 2024 at 6:57 pm
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Earl
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Tom
December 29, 2024 at 12:19 pm
President Musk and his sidekick bring back DEI with a vengeance. I guess the first clue would have been that both the President elect and his VP are both married to foreigners and now I have to wear a hat so I don’t get hit on the head by falling grocery prices. Brace yourself Maggie …. it’s going to be a rough one.
Cindy
December 29, 2024 at 3:35 pm
Engineering is becoming less not many in advancement is moving into America as fast as it was in the beginning of explorers.
Now it is I will be destroyed by gangs asylums and my home was destroyed by wind and flooding..
Ron Ogden
December 29, 2024 at 11:24 pm
This is what is called transparency and healthy debate among advocates and policy makers. It is how a country like ours is supposed to be governed. Think back to the administration the voters just ousted: years of rule by a man whose intellectual collapse was denied and hidden by his minions, the representative of a political party that just got canned because its members were plainly denied the opportunity to express dissent within its ranks.
JD
December 30, 2024 at 8:31 am
“the representative of a political party just got canned because its members were plainly denied the opportunity to express dissent within its ranks.”
This is similar to what President-Elect Musk threatened to do to lawmakers if they voted for the first negotiated and debated funding bill. He threatened to use his oligarchic wealth to back their primary challengers. In that case, they weren’t allowed to express satisfaction within their ranks, which is just the other side of the same coin as dissent.
Hypocrisy.
Silly Wabbit
January 2, 2025 at 3:19 pm
Ogden kwazy.
Ocean Joe
January 2, 2025 at 8:24 am
The divide may reveal that racism and anti-immigrant sentiments arent helpful to economic growth, but of course they’re very helpful for winning elections.
As for healthy debate, Mr. Ogden obviously did not read Elon Musk’s filthy post about what his opponents could do with their faces. Unrepeatable here, rather obscene and shocking coming from this titan of industry and wealth yet sounding more like a 13 year old.
JD
January 2, 2025 at 8:46 am
As much as I loathe Steve Bannon, his quip about Musk being a toddler is apt.
Not a fan of Musk and never have been (and I am in technology), him joining forces with MAGA was all about enriching themselves from both sides. Musk to strangle the funding from the agencies investigating him and Trump getting the much needed cash injection. It’s not Reagan’s “big tent”, but rather the “Sideshow, Freak Show tent”.
To be that crass 13 year old – “we done FAFO”.
Tom
January 2, 2025 at 1:05 pm
For all his money, he still can’t seem to find tee shirts that fit him. He should worry less about exploring Mars and focus on Planet Fitness.
Josh Green
January 3, 2025 at 11:27 am
Weird how the same party that’s been systematically destroying the education system in this country now realizes they don’t have an educated workforce here anymore and need to bring in people from other countries.
Idk
January 5, 2025 at 11:44 am
Musk needs to get off the ketimin.
China makes better cars and is better in the competitive-edge -of -price.
Never will make America great again with that news.
Idk
January 5, 2025 at 7:08 pm
Its time to meat with president discord and talk with partners. Mr and miss discourse
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