Trump advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy expose rift with MAGA loyalists over immigrant tech workers
A multiday firestorm has erupted over comments made by two incoming advisers to President-elect Donald Trump about H-1B temporary worker visas, a carve-out for high-skilled workers who some in the MAGA world say are taking American jobs.
A multiday firestorm has erupted over comments made by two incoming advisers to President-elect Donald Trump about H-1B temporary worker visas, a carve-out for high-skilled workers who some in the MAGA world say are taking American jobs.
The fight began brewing on X ahead of Christmas after Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan to a top artificial intelligence policy post, triggering a racially charged backlash that surfaced Krishnan’s comments advocating for green cards for skilled workers.
The backlash escalated Thursday, when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence,” attributing this as one reason for the influx of foreign tech workers. Ramaswamy, who is Indian American, went on to say he hopes Trump’s presidency can start an American culture that prioritizes “hard work over laziness.” Tech executives have called for greater access to the widely used immigration visa, arguing that it is necessary to fill high-skilled tech and other specialized jobs.
Trump adviser Elon Musk, with whom Ramaswamy is a co-leader of Trump’s incoming Department of Government Efficiency, had posted Thursday on X in response to a tweet about a shortage of skilled workers in Silicon Valley that “the number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low.” Musk, who was born in South Africa and is a naturalized American citizen, urged people to think "of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.”
Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy.Getty ImagesThe posts by the two generated backlash among ardent MAGA supporters who want a hard-line approach to all forms of immigration, and exposed a chasm in the relationship with a right-wing faction of some of Trump's closest allies and advisers from the tech sector.
Rating: 5