Trump’s AI pick sparks vitriol between tech and MAGA supporters

While many of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for his administration have alarmed Democrats, his choice of an Indian-American tech executive and investor to advise on artificial intelligence has enraged some of his anti-immigrant MAGA supporters. The backlash has opened a potential rift between Trump’s big-tech and far-right bases of support, while prompting a Silicon Valley politician to speak out.

Trump, who has said he will try to reduce both legal and illegal immigration to protect American-born workers, announced this month the appointment of Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, to oversee AI – the policy.

Among those who have since withdrawn is Laura Loomer, a far-right activist with a history of using racist and conspiratorial rhetoric, who said Trump’s decision to appoint an India-born leader to the role goes against his “America- first” agenda. Krishnan has advocated removing country-specific caps on green cards, which could usher in more talent from countries like India.

On X, Loomer asked how the administration will “control immigration into our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed this guy who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps” so that immigrants “can come to the United States and take jobs, that should be given to American STEM students.” Another X user posted a picture of Krishnan and asked, “Did any of you vote for this Indian to run America?”

Krishnan, who has led product teams at Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and Snap, did not return a request for comment. But Elon Musk, investor David Sacks and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of Santa Clara came to Krishnan’s defense. Musk told his supporters to ignore Loomer, while Khanna said in a statement to the Chronicle that Krishnan is a “thoughtful tech leader and his success exemplifies American exceptionalism.”

“The attacks on his identity and his views on immigration reform are absurd. We should celebrate that some of the world’s brightest and most talented workers want to contribute to the American economy,” Khanna said.

The far-right attack on Krishnan involves H-1Bs, the temporary work visas for highly skilled foreign workers. Critics pointed to a past post by Krishnan on X who said: “Anything to remove national borders for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.” Sacks made it happen defend Krishnan’s comments saying he supports “skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program open-ended.”

“Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a widely held view on the right,” Sacks said. A day later, he wrote that Krishnan “will have no influence on US immigration policy. These attacks have become crude and not in the holiday spirit.”

In his first term, Trump enacted policies that resulted in fewer H-1B visas. Rejections of new H-IBs peaked during Trump’s first term — at 24% in fiscal year 2018, with 28,181 rejected, compared with 10% in 2016, the year before Trump took office, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, an Arlington, Va., research nonprofit. Trump issued an executive order in June 2020 suspending the issuance of new H-1B visas, saying it would protect American jobs, but a judge ultimately blocked his order.

Trump has not said how he will manage H-1B visas in his second term, and it is possible he could face backlash from Musk and Sacks, both of whom have joined his administration, if he restricts visas. Project 2025, the conservative playbook, proposes changing the H-1B program to limit eligibility “exclusively” to bringing in workers “at the highest wage.”

Reach Sarah Ravani: [email protected]; X: @SarRavani