Musk and Ramaswamy spar with Trump supporters over support for H-1B work visas

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the heads of President-elect Donald Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” have found themselves at odds with some of Trump’s far-right supporters over their support for H-1B visas, which allows foreign skilled workers to work in America.

The debate was sparked over the Christmas holiday when Laura Loomer, a conservative social media figure who faced criticism when she traveled with Trump on some campaign stops, criticized Trump’s appointment of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence .

Loomer criticized a post by Krishnan advocating the removal of national limits on green cards, calling the appointment “deeply troubling,” sparking an online battle between business leaders who say work visas are essential to hiring high-skilled foreign workers and Trump supporters who argued that it was a way for business leaders to have cheap labor instead of providing job opportunities for Americans.

Both Ramaswamy and Musk made several posts on X arguing that H-1B visas are essential because American culture don’t do prioritize success in science and engineering careers compared to other countries.

“Our American culture has honored mediocrity over excellence too way too long (at least since the 90s and probably longer). To don’t do start college, it starts YOUNG,” Ramaswamy wrote the X.

“ONE Culture that celebrates the prom queen over the Math Olympiad champion, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he added.

Musk that has said he once worked in the United States on an H-1B visa, said he has relied on these work visas for the operation of his technology businesses and that they are essential because of the number of skilled workers needed to deal with the emergence of new technologies.

“Of course, my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we do as it is MUCH easier than going through incredibly painful and slow work visa process,” he wrote. “However, there is a severe shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Loomer and other far-right conservatives have also argued that expansions of such programs would run counter to Trump’s immigration crackdown.

While she and others have accused Musk and Ramaswamy of obstructing Trump’s aggressive immigration proposals, business leaders have argued that such reforms would not hinder the program’s extensive vetting process.

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

“This is like bringing in the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your entire team (which is mostly American!) win the NBA,” he said, referring to two foreign-born basketball stars.

Now the business leaders are being accused of using Trump for their own personal gain.

“We are replacing a third world migrant invasion for a third world technological invasion. Same shit,” Loomer wrote on X. “Except for this invasion will not done by rapists who look and smell like garbage. It will be done by left-wing tech billionaires who hate Trump deep down.”

Further showing a split among conservatives over the issue, former Republicans presidential election candidate Nikki Haley also weighed in and pushed back on a post from Ramaswamy and quarrel American workers should be prioritized over foreigners.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she said. “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.”

In June comes David Sacks, who will be the president-elect AI and crypto czar, Trump interviewed for his “All In” podcast and asked Trump if he would expand H-1B work visa for tech workers after straightening the border — to which Trump said “yes.”

In the same episode, Trump too promised to grant green cards to all international candidates, saying, “I will do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. It includes secondary schools, also.”

His campaign later backfired lift, saying there would be an investigative process.

“He think only after such an examination has taken place, we should retain the most capable candidates who can make significant contributions to America,” incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News then. “This would apply only to the most proven college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”

ABC News’ Zohreen Shah contributed to this report.