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The battle between Elon Musk and MAGA supporters over immigration has highlighted the rift between Donald Trump's new supporters in Silicon Valley and his more extreme base.
The dispute over immigration policy and visa plans for foreign workers arose after Trump appointed Sriram Krishnan, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, as a senior adviser on White House policy on artificial intelligence.
The move sparked a backlash from Trump's “Make America Great Again” base on
Far-right activist Laura Loomer said, citing a post in which Krishnan supported removing caps on green cards in order to “open the door to skilled labor migration.” In a post on X on Monday “It is alarming to see how many career leftists are now being appointed to serve in the Trump administration when they share views that are in direct conflict with Trump's America First agenda.”
Representatives from all over Trump World jumped into the discussion. Far-right activists supported Loomer, who in turn attacked technology executives in the president-elect's circle, including Musk and David Sachs, who were appointed by Trump. He is known as the AI in the White House and the Crypto Czar He is set to work closely with Krishnan.
Musk, himself an immigrant to the United States, has supported hiring highly skilled foreign workers. There is a “severe shortage of talented, highly motivated engineers in America,” He said on the 10th on Wednesday. “It comes down to this: Do you want America to win or do you want America to lose. If you force the best talent in the world to play for the other side, America will lose.”
The split raises questions about whether two vastly different wings of Trump's constituency — some of America's most powerful tech executives and far-right activists — will be able to coexist.
Tech leaders, who have historically been targets of Trump's wrath, have done so It escalated Charmingly attacked the president-elect in recent weeks, donating to his inaugural fund and dining with him at Mar-a-Lago.
“Executives at big tech companies think they're running things now,” Loomer said Written on X Thursday. “One day they will (rub) Trump the wrong way and it will escalate. A feud between Maga and his tech bros would be awesome.
The online sparring has put the spotlight on Musk, who has taken on the role of Trump's confidant after becoming one of his most vocal and vocal fans. Funders During his presidential campaign. President-elect Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy have been put in charge of cutting government spending and federal regulation.
in Long post on X Ramaswamy said on Thursday that the migration of skilled labor was needed because of the American culture of “mediocre before excellence,” sparking more backlash from MAGA supporters.
On Thursday, Musk turned to sports analogies in an attempt to quell negative reactions online. “Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I point to bringing the top 0.1% of engineering talent through legal immigration as essential for America to continue to win.” Written on X.
“This is like bringing in the Jokic or Wemby's of the world to help your entire team (which is mostly made up of Americans!) win the NBA,” Musk added, referring to foreign-born players in the NBA.
Krishnan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Visas, including the H-1B program, have been key to the development of Silicon Valley, and continue to be so in order to maintain America's leading technology sector.
“The H-1B is critical to Silicon Valley,” said Heba Anver, a partner at Ericsson Immigration Group. “There is more than one type of company-sponsored visa, but the H1-B is the one visa that the largest number of people can qualify for.”
The United States government allows 85,000 new recipients each fiscal year. Denial rates rose slightly during Trump's first presidency, due to policies that courts later ruled to be illegal.
Unlike other visa categories, “you don't have to be born in a particular country, you don't have to work in a foreign office of the same company, and the standard of evidence is not high,” Anver said.
In the race to stay ahead of China in technological development, from semiconductors to artificial intelligence, attracting talent is key to the US technology sector.
“There was overwhelming feedback from the executives I spoke to about how complicated it is to bring people here, and how it hurts their ability to innovate,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of Futurum Group.
“If you look at some of the biggest breakthroughs in innovation, you will find that skills, engineering and technology are often started by people who came here on visas,” he added.
