Trump sides with Musk in H-1B war
President-elect calls the work visa coveted by Indian techies “a great program” as Trump ally Steve Bannon dubs it a “scam”
In an escalating conflict between his MAGA supporters and Elon Musk over H-1B visas, triggered by the appointment of a key Indian American advisor, the President-elect has come out in support of his billionaire friend.
Defending the visa program that allows Indian techies and and other highly skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the US, Donald Trump on Saturday said in an interview with The New York Post that he’s “a believer in H-1B.”
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the newspaper. “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.
READ: DHS revamps H-1B program to help employers, students (December 18, 2024)
Trump’s comments came amid a war of words sparked when by the President-elect announcing the appointment of Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence—Krishanan has advocated for eliminating caps on green cards and skilled immigration programs.
The conflict spiraled into a larger debate on American workforce culture, race and immigration and escalated Friday and into Saturday, with Musk doubling down on his defense of the program, writing on X that “contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem” in response to a post from right-wing commentator Scott Adams that “MAGA is taking a page from Democrats on how to lose elections while feeling good about themselves.”
READ: DC court upholds H-1B spousal work permits (August 6, 2024)
Musk later clarified that he was referring to “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists.”
Trump ally Steve Bannon also dedicated two of his “War Room” podcasts released Saturday to the issue, blasting the H-1B program and Silicon Valley and calling the visa program “an economic and financial scam” with “a dark underpinning of hatred of American citizens and our beloved Republic.”
Bannon said he has “full respect” for Musk, but challenged him to back up his claims that his companies depend on H-1B visas by publishing data on “every engineer hired on H-1B and prove Americans couldn’t fill those roles.”
READ MORE: Working on a student visa in the US (November 1, 2024)
“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 H-1B,” Musk wrote Saturday on X. “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.”
Musk, who was born in South Africa and obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother, came to the US as a foreign student and later worked on an H-1B visa.
Musk and and Indian American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tapped to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, have defended the foreign worker visa program, igniting sharp criticism from MAGA loyalists hoping to restrict immigration. Besides Musk and Ramaswamy, venture capitalist David Sacks also defended Krishnan.
Their defense of foreign worker visas has been met with strong pushback from Trump’santi-immigration supporters including far-right provocateur Laura Loomer. She called Krishnan’s hiring “deeply disturbing” and said that “allowing big tech executives into Mar-A-Lago is going to be the death of our country. Isn’t it?”
Reacting to Musk’s promise to defend the H-1B program, Loomer after accusing Musk of trying to censor her wrote, “May God bless and protect President Trump from these people.”
In recent years Indian techies have cornered about three fourths of the annual quota of 65,000 H-1B visas for highly skilled workers plus another 20,000 visas for workers with an advanced degree in the US.
Trump hasn’t always been as supportive of H-1B visas as he claimed to The New York Post. During his 2016 campaign, he called the program “very bad” and “unfair” to US workers and tightened restrictions on H-1B applications as president.
More than 700,000 people held H-1B visas in 2023, according to the American Immigration Council. They are valid for three years and can be extended for up to six.