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The battle between Elon Musk and Maga's supporters over immigration has highlighted the rift between Donald Trump's new supporters in Silicon Valley and his powerful base.
Disagreements over immigration policy and foreign worker visa programs stem from Trump's appointment of Sriram Krishnan, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, as the White House's top policy adviser on artificial intelligence.
The move caused a backlash from Trump's “Make America Great Again” foundation on X, which quickly became embroiled in a debate over H-1B visas – a program aimed at skilled foreign workers who are critical to US technology groups.
Citing a post in which Krishnan advocated removing country caps on green cards to “open up skilled immigration”, right-wing activist Laura Loomer said. at X's post on Monday that “it is shocking to see the number of leftists being nominated to serve in the Trump administration when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump's America First agenda”.
Representatives from around the Trump world jumped into the debate. Right-wing activists backed Loomer, who also attacked tech executives in the presidential cycle, including. Musk and David Sacks, Trump's White House nominee AI and crypto tsar and is destined to work closely with Krishnan.
Musk, who is also an immigrant to the US, came out in favor of hiring foreign workers with high skills. There is “a serious shortage of very talented and motivated engineers in America”, said X on Wednesday. “Come down to this: you want America to SUCCEED or you want America to LOSE. If you force the best talent in the world to play on the other side, America WILL LOSE.”
The split raises questions about whether the two different wings of Trump's election — some of America's most powerful tech executives and right-wing activists — will be able to coexist.
Tech executives, historically the target of Trump's ire, have you have ascended offensive charm for the president-elect in recent weeks, donating to his foundation fund and dining with him at Mar-a-Lago.
“Big tech executives think they're running things now,” Loomer said wrote to X on Thursday. “One day they will (rub) Trump the wrong way and it will escalate. The fight between Maga and the tech bros will be glorious.”
The online sparring is taking place for Musk, who has taken on the role of Trump confidante after becoming one of his most vocal supporters. bankers during his presidential campaign. The president-elect has made billionaire and former Republican president Vivek Ramaswamy responsible for cutting government spending and federal regulation.
In a long space in X On Thursday, Ramaswamy said the migration of skills was needed because of America's culture of “excellence over excellence”, which Maga's followers are pushing back.
On Thursday, Musk turned to sports ratings in an attempt to quell the blowback on the internet. “Perhaps this is a helpful explanation: I refer to the legalization of the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as essential to America's continued success,” wrote to X.
“This is like bringing the Jokic's or the Wemby's of the world to help your entire (mostly American!) team win the NBA,” Musk added, referring to foreign-born players in US basketball.
Krishnan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Visas including the H-1B program have been central to the development of Silicon Valley and remain so in order to maintain America's leading technology sector.
“IH-1B is very important to Silicon Valley,” said Hiba Anver, a partner at Erickson Immigration Group. There is more than one type of company-sponsored visa, but the H1-B is the most common visa that people can get.
The US government admits 85,000 new beneficiaries every fiscal year. Denial rates soared in Trump's first presidency, due to policies that courts later ruled illegal.
Unlike other types of visa, “you don't have to be born in a certain country, you don't have to work in the foreign office of the same company, and the bar of proof is not high”, said Anver.
In the race to stay ahead of China in technological developments, from semiconductors to AI, attracting talent is critical to the US tech sector.
“There have been amazing comments from the executives I've spoken to about the difficulty of bringing people here, and how that hurts their ability to innovate,” said Daniel Newman, chief executive at Futurum Group.
“If you look at some of the biggest advances in innovation, skills, engineering and technology they are often started by people who came here on visas,” he added.