Musk and Ramaswamy ignite MAGA war over skilled immigration and US ‘mediocrity’

Trump globalists Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have ignited an intra-MAGA fight with their proposal to increase immigration visas for highly skilled workers.

Musk and Ramaswamy, who have been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), argued that American culture has not prioritized education enough, and therefore foreign labor is needed for tech companies like Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla.

The pair saw their conservative influence skyrocket through the 2024 election as they drew closer to Trump, but the wealthy businessmen now run afoul of Trump’s most fervent base, which wants to see Trump deliver on promises of immigration restrictions and promoting the American workforce.

Trump limited foreign worker visa access during his first administration and has criticized the H-1B visa program, which allows American companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.

“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk wrote on X, arguing that the tech industry needs to “double” the number of engineers working in the US today .

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Trump globalists Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have ignited an intra-MAGA fight with their proposal to increase immigration visas for highly skilled workers. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the US is way too low,” he added.

Musk compared recruiting foreign workers to assembling a sports team. “You have to recruit top talent wherever they are. This enables the whole TEAM to win.”

Ramaswamy, whose parents immigrated to the US from India, supported Musk and took shots at American society.

“American culture has honored mediocrity over excellence,” he wrote at X.

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the Math Olympiad champion, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”

Those comments didn’t sit well with conservative crusaders like pundit Ann Coulter, commentator Laura Loomer, former Rep. Matt Gaetz and even former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

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Musk and Ramaswamy, who have been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, argued that American culture has not prioritized education enough. (Michael Swensen/Getty Images)

The pair argue that foreign labor is needed for tech companies like Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” Haley wrote in a post on the social platform X. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should invest and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.”

Haley and Ramaswamy have a long history of butting heads, beginning with their contest in the 2024 Republican primary.

“We welcomed the tech bros as they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher choosing their child’s gender — and the obvious economic decline of Biden/Harris,” Gaetz, R-Fla., wrote in a posts on social media on Thursday. “We didn’t ask them to draft an immigration policy.”

Right-wing rabble-rouser Loomer said, “Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third world invaders from India. It’s not racist against Indians to want the original MAGA policy I voted for. I voted for a reduction in H-1B visas not an extension.”

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The skirmish started after Trump nominated venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan to serve as his AI policy adviser. This nomination sparked anti-Indian backlash, with critics highlighting his earlier support for lifting the cap on green cards.

“The Woodstock generation managed to build space travel, it went to the moon before, America did well. The background to your post is that we were all living in squalor until we were saved by H-1Bs. Why did everyone want to come here?” right-wing personality Mike Cernovich replied to Ramaswamy on X.