Musk clashes with MAGA over H-1B visas: Where does Trump stand?
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Elon Musk has publicly split with a faction of President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters over the hiring of foreign workers in the U.S. And though he’s criticized them in the past, Trump appears to be siding with Musk in the use of H-1B visas.
Software engineers and others in the tech industry, including Musk, have used H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and say they are a critical tool for hard-to-fill positions.
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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.
Now, hard-right members of Trump's Make America Great Again movement have accused Musk and others in Trump's new flank of tech-world supporters of pushing policies at odds with Trump's "America First" vision.
What do Musk and some Trump supporters disagree on?
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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.
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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.
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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.
What does Trump say about H-1B visas?
Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as they watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Trump, in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, praised the use of visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the U.S. The topic has become a flashpoint within his conservative base.
"I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them," Trump said.
But Trump has in the past criticized the H-1B visas, calling them "very bad" and "unfair" for U.S. workers. During his first term as president, he unveiled a "Hire American" policy that directed changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants.
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Despite his criticism of them, he has also used the visas at his businesses in the past, something he acknowledged in his interview Saturday.
"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," Trump told the newspaper.
Trump's hardline immigration policies, focused mostly on immigrants who are in the country illegally, were a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and a priority issue for his supporters.