Elon Musk clashes with Trump’s Maga allies over H-1B visas, immigration

The billionaire says foreign talent ‘essential for America to keep winning’ but Trump’s backers want Musk to stay out of immigration debate

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Donald Trump with billionaire Elon Musk (left) in Pennsylvania. Photo: AP

Published: 10:37am, 28 Dec 2024

Donald Trump has yet to move back into the White House and already fissures are opening in his coalition, amid squabbling between Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley “tech bros” and his hardcore Republican backers.

At the heart of the internecine sniping is Trump’s central election issue – immigration – and the H1-B visas that allow companies to bring foreigners with specific qualifications to the United States.

The permits are widely used in Silicon Valley, and Musk – who himself came to the US from South Africa on an H1-B – is a fervent advocate.

The world’s richest man, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign and has become a close adviser, posted on X on Thursday that welcoming elite engineering talent from abroad was “essential for America to keep winning”.

Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump as Musk’s co-chair on a new advisory board on government efficiency, suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an “American culture,” which he said venerates mediocrity.

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he posted, warning that, without a change in attitude, “we’ll have our asses handed to us by China”.