‘You don’t get it’: Trump fans turn on Musk as civil war erupts over skilled immigration
A MAGA civil war has erupted between Donald Trump fans and billionaire Elon Musk with a vicious debate taking over social media.
Donald Trump was rocketed into the White House thanks in no small part to the support of Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley heavyweights.
But a vicious debate over skilled immigration that erupted on social media this week shows the honeymoon between MAGA and the right-wing tech bros is well and truly over.
Arguably the biggest fracture to emerge in the new pro-Trump coalition since the Republican’s stunning election victory last month came to a head over Christmas after Mr Musk spoke up in favour of increasing the number of skilled tech workers allowed into the US.
That sparked a heated and increasingly racially-charged debate on the H1B visa program, which companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft have used to bring in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in recent years, overwhelmingly from India.
Critics argue H1B and other skilled migration programs are used by tech giants to replace native-born workers and drive down wages, while proponents including Mr Musk argue they are essential to fill local skills shortages in critical sectors like artificial intelligence (AI).
“The ‘fixed pie’ fallacy is at the heart of much wrongheaded economic thinking,” the Tesla chief executive wrote on X.
“There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago!”
His comment was in response to a post from entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale about Sriram Krishnan, who President-elect Trump recently tapped for a key AI advisory role in his upcoming administration.
Last month, Mr Krishnan advocated for lifting a cap on green cards when replying to a post of Mr Musk’s regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new body that Mr Musk will lead alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge,” Mr Krishnan wrote.
In another post, Mr Krishnan added, “Simple logic — we need the best, regardless of where they happen to be born (another bizarre quirk — the country cap is where you were born, not even citizenship).”
David Sacks, who Mr Trump tapped for White House AI and cryptocurrency czar, discussed Mr Krishnan’s view in a post this week.
“Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program unlimited,” he wrote. “In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based.”
Mr Musk replied, “Makes sense.”
The billionaire wrote in another post that the US needed to more than double the 160,000 semiconductor engineers said to be required by 2032, driven by $US250 billion in new investments.
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” he said.
“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.”
One prominent right-wing user wrote, “There are over 330 million people in America. Surely, there must be enough among them to build your ultimate team? Why would you deny real Americans that opportunity by bringing foreigners here?”
Mr Musk replied, “Your understanding of the situation is upside-down and backwards. 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.”
He insisted “this is not about handing out opportunities from some magical hat”.
Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2024
This is like bringing in the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your whole team (which is mostly… https://t.co/mtd0cgkNvE
“You don’t get it,” he continued. “This is blindingly obvious when looking at NBA teams, as the physical differences are so obvious to see. However, the MENTAL differences between humans are FAR bigger than the physical differences!”
Mr Musk’s comments sparked a days-long backlash from anti-immigration hardliners as pro-Trump influencers lined up on either side of the debate.
“This ‘tech labour shortage’ is total nonsense,” wrote Andrew Torba, founder of far-right social media platform Gab.
“They think you’re stupid. If you’re a white male engineer in this country and you’re unemployed right now you can’t even get an interview because many of the hiring managers at top tech firms are Indian and only hire their own.”
Daniel Horowitz, senior editor at The Blaze, pointed out that over the past year, native-born American workers had lost a net 773,000 jobs, while foreign-born workers had gained more than one million jobs.
“Since before the pandemic, the foreign-born workforce has grown by 3.7 million, while the native-born workforce has shrunk by 873,000,” he wrote.
“Indian contract companies like Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Cognizant, and Tata have exploited the H-1B, L-1, F-1, and Optional Practical Training visa pipelines to flood Silicon Valley and American tech companies with cheap labour. This approach not only boxes out American workers but also treats many Indian recruits as indentured servants. Over the past few decades, 71 per cent of jobs in Silicon Valley have gone to foreign workers, while 74 per cent of American STEM graduates have failed to secure jobs in STEM fields.”
William Upton, editor at The National Pulse, argued that there was “little data” supporting the tech industry’s claims of a worker shortage.
“Between 2022 and 2024, Amazon laid off nearly 30,000 high-skilled workers,” he wrote.
“In the same period … the online retail giant expanded its workforce by nearly 100,000 foreign workers. Similar trends are true for Google and Microsoft. Between 2022 and 2024, nearly 60,000 American workers were laid off among the three companies, while the companies increased their H1B employees by over 340 per cent.”
Many right-wing online influencers spoke up to defend Mr Musk.
“Some of the same people who said ‘we support legal immigration just not illegal immigration’ are suddenly anti-legal immigration for the top 0.1 per cent of foreign talent. Makes no sense and is a losing position,” wrote Collin Rugg from Trending Politics.
Utsav Sanduja, founder of the pro-Trump group Hindus for America First, said 400,000 H1B visa holders “aren’t your enemy”.
“They’re vetted, regulated, and accounted for — a reminder of what lawful immigration should look like,” he wrote.
“Meanwhile, 15–30 million illegal aliens live in America, unvetted and unchecked. That’s where our focus must be if we want to protect our sovereignty and our future. The hatred I’ve seen on this platform today is disheartening — especially on Christmas Eve and Day, a time for reflection and unity. Let’s rise above the division, refocus our energy, and fight for the values that truly make America great.”
Mr Ramaswamy also weighed in with a lengthy Boxing Day post suggesting American culture that had “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long” was to blame.
“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and wrong explanation),” he said.
“A key part of it comes down to the c-word — culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
Mr Ramaswamy claimed a culture that “venerates Cory from Boy Meets World, or Zach and Slater over Screech in Saved by the Bell, or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in Family Matters, will not produce the best engineers”.
“Fact — I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity … and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates,” he added.
— with Fox News
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