An online debate about foreign workers in technology shows tensions in Trump’s political coalition

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online eat between factions of Donald Trump’s Supporters of immigration and the tech industry have thrown internal divisions within his political movement into public view, showing the fissures and conflicting views his coalition could bring to the White House.

The rift exposed the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement – wealthy members of the tech world including the billionaire Elon Musk and co-entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more high-skilled workers in their industry—and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base, who champion his tough immigration policies.

The debate this week touched on when Laura Loomera right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s election of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his incoming administration. Krishnan advocates the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the United States

Declaring the position to be “not America First politics,” Loomer said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump did it to enrich himself.

Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns.

Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with the venture capitalist and former PayPal CEO David Sackswho Trump has named to be the “White House AI & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, which Trump is tasked with finding ways to cut the federal governmentweighed in and defended the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.

It blossomed into a larger debate, with more figures from the hard right weighing in on the need to hire American workers, whether values ​​in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the Internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for.

Trump has yet to weigh in on the breakup. His presidential transition team did not respond to questions about positions on visas for high-skilled workers or the debate among his supporters online. Instead, his team posted a link to a post on X by longtime adviser and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller it was a transcript of a speech Trump gave 2020 at Mount Rushmore in which he praised figures and moments from American history.

Musk, the world’s richest man, who has grown remarkably close to the president-electwas a central figure in the debate, not only for his standing in Trump’s movement, but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers.

Tech companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the technology industry, are essential for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut American citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded.

Musk, who was born in South Africa, was once on an H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.

“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “That’s the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement.

His tough immigration policies, including his promise of mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who enter the United States illegally, but he also has that sought restrictions on legal immigrationincluding family-based visas.

As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” to American workers. After he became president, in 2017 Trump issued a “Buy American and Hire American” announcementwhich directed Cabinet members to propose changes to ensure that H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most skilled applicants to protect American workers.

However, Trump’s companies have employed foreign labour, i.a waiters and chefs at his Mar-a-Lago cluband his social media company behind his Truth Social app have used the H-1B program for highly qualified workers.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, making immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history.

But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message about immigration in general, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from American colleges.

“I think you should automatically, as part of your degree, get a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast featuring people from the venture capital and tech world.

Those comments came at the height of Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.