Musk inflames X with profane movie quote in defense of H-1B visas

The MAGA movement’s internal rift over the H-1B visa continues to play out on X with Elon Musk attacking a critic of the program on Friday using a profane quote from Tom Cruise’s character in the movie “Tropic Thunder.”

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

Many tech companies have embraced the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, but critics of the program say H-1B holders are often chosen over U.S. citizens for jobs. One of the reasons for this is that foreign workers are tied to their respective employers via the H-1B visa – as a company is required to sponsor the visa – and therefore quitting the job may ultimately result in foreign workers lose their visas and their skills. legally to stay in the country.

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On Friday, Musk doubled down on his defense of the program, blasting a user on X who used a video of Musk discussing SpaceX processes to go after the billionaire’s stance on the visa program.

“The reason I’m in America with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk wrote on X.

He then went on to quote the 2008 action comedy film which was a box office hit.

“Take a big step back and F— YOURSELF in the face,” Musk raged.

The line, although not verbatim, comes from a scene from the film where Tom Cruise’s character Les Grossman, a bald, profane and ill-tempered studio executive, bellows down the phone to a group of kidnappers in a memorable scene.

Grossman then proceeds to threaten the kidnappers, saying he will go to “scorched earth” and “massacre” them. The outburst leaves the kidnappers and Matthew McConaughey, who plays Rick “The Pecker” Peck, stunned into silence. The film also stars Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Nick Nolte.

Musk also invokes Grossman’s combative stance on the X user, ending his post on Friday by writing, “I will go to war on this issue that you cannot possibly understand.”

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Musk then continued to engage with other commenters on the topic, saying he agreed with a poster who wrote that the visa program needs reform and that Musk “protects meritocracy and the American dream for tech innovators at all costs.”

Elsewhere, Musk agreed to a separate post saying that Google, Intel and Tesla were all founded or built by immigrants and that H-1B visa workers are effectively capped at 15% for large tech companies. The position noted that a third of positions in the sector go unfilled each year and that foreign labor is needed in the short term to make up for the shortfall.

On Christmas Day, Musk wrote that he and his companies would prefer to hire Americans — and that it’s much easier than going through the “incredibly painful and slow work visa process.”

“However, there is a severe shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America. This is not about handing out opportunities from some magic hat. You don’t get it. This is glaringly obvious when you look at NBA teams that the physical differences are so clear to see,” Musk wrote.

“But the MENTAL differences between people are FAR greater than the physical differences!!”

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He also wrote that hiring immigrants is critical to future American ingenuity.

“It comes down to this: do you want the US to win or do you want the US to lose,” he wrote. “If you force the world’s best talent to play for the other side, America will LOSE. End of story.”

This isn’t the first time Musk has invoked Tropic Thunder online. In August, he unleashed the same line on Thierry Breton, a French business executive and former EU commissioner for internal markets and services, who threatened to censor X.

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.