Donald Trump Allies Clash Over H-1B Visas: Full Timeline

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneurs tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, have argued in recent days that big tech companies need to hire skilled workers from abroad because there aren’t enough “motivated” Americans to fill these jobs.

Those comments have sparked backlash from Trump’s die-hard MAGA supporters who support his hardline immigration positions.

Discussions about reforms to the H-1B visa program, a visa class for skilled workers, have intensified recently, with some advocating for the removal of country-specific caps on green cards to address backlogs faced by applicants from counties including India .

Once Trump takes office, the divide could potentially show whether Trump’s historic base or his new allies in the tech industry have more influence in his administration.

Newsweek has reached out to the Trump transition for comment via email.

The timeline

Sunday

The debate started on Sunday after Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his adviser on AI policy.

Monday

Laura Loomer, a Trump loyalist and far-right activist with a history of racist comments, criticized the appointment as “deeply disturbing”.

She wrote on X: “It is alarming to see the number of career leftists now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda.”

Tuesday

Loomer sparked backlash over inflammatory comments on X on Tuesday.

In response to a post that said the nation was built by “immigrants who drove innovation,” she wrote that the United States “was built by white Europeans” and “not third world invaders from India.”

In another post, she wrote: “It’s not racist against Native Americans to want the original MAGA policies I voted for. I voted for a reduction in H-1B visas. Not an extension.”

Entrepreneur David Sacks noted in response that Krishnan advocates removing country-specific caps on green cards, not lifting the cap entirely.

Wednesday

Musk, the world’s richest man who himself has benefited from the H-1B program, wrote Wednesday in a response to a post on his social media platform X that there are not enough “super talented” and “super motivated” engineers in the United States

“The number of people who are super skilled engineers AND super motivated in the US is far too low,” he wrote. “Think of this like a professional sports team: If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they are. This enables the whole TEAM to win.”

In another post, he wrote that a “lack of excellent engineering talent” is a “fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

Loomer accused tech executives like Musk of “throwing money around Mar a Lago to try to buy influence in the White House so they can determine technology policy, limit regulation of China, and control our immigration policy.”

Thursday

Ramaswamy, a former GOP presidential candidate, waded into the debate Thursday, arguing in a lengthy post on X that tech companies need foreign labor because Americans don’t have a good enough work ethic and that American culture “honors mediocrity over expertise.”

“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over “native” Americans is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and incorrect explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture ,” Ramaswamy wrote.

He added that Trump’s election “hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over for laziness.”

Ramaswamy’s post sparked backlash from Trump supporters as well as critics such as Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she wrote on X. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Musk continued to defend his argument, saying it was a way to supplement, not replace, American workers.

“Perhaps this is a helpful clarification: I’m referring to bringing in the top ~0.1 percent of engineering talent via legal immigration as being critical to America continuing to win,” he wrote.

He also said Loomer was “trolling for attention.”

She replied that Musk “bought (his) way into MAGA five minutes ago.”

In another post, she wrote: “I got you and all your Big Tech friends trying to infiltrate the White House to respond and expose yourselves as being in opposition to MAGA’s immigration policies.”

She added: “You’re still not our president. The real president knows that H1B visas are bad for America, and the real president is from this country.”

Friday

Loomer suggested that Musk had taken her “verified” status on X as “retaliation”.

“So much for free speech. Pretty totalitarian if you ask me,” she wrote in a post early Friday.

Her post included a screenshot of Musk’s earlier post that said “any accounts found to be involved in coordinated attacks to spam target accounts with mutes/blocks will themselves be categorized – correctly – as spam.”