Usa desk:
Donald Trump weighed in Saturday in a bitter debate dividing his traditional supporters and tech barrons like Elon Musk, saying that he backed a special visa programme that helps highly skilled workers enter the country.
‘I’ve always liked the (H1-B) visas, I have always been in favour of the visas, that’s why we have them’ at Trump-owned facilities, the US president-elect told the New York Post in his first public comments on the matter since it flared up this week.
An angry back-and-forth, largely between Silicon Valley’s Musk and traditional anti-immigration Trump backers, has erupted in fiery fashion, with Musk even vowing to ‘go to war’ over the issue.
Trump’s insistent calls for sharp curbs on immigration were central to his election victory in November over president Joe Biden. He has vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants and limit legal immigration.
But tech entrepreneurs like Tesla’s Musk –– as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Musk is to co-chair a government cost-cutting panel under Trump –– say the United States produces too few highly skilled graduates, and they fervently champion the H1-B programme.
Musk, who himself migrated from South Africa on an H1-B, posted on Thursday on his X platform that luring elite engineering talent from abroad was ‘essential for America to keep winning.’
Adding acrimony to the debate was a post from Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants from India, who deplored an ‘American culture’ that he said venerates mediocrity, adding that the United States risks having ‘our asses handed to us by China.’
That angered several prominent conservatives who were backing Trump long before Musk noisily joined their cause this year, going on to pump more than $250 million into the Republican’s campaign.
‘Looking forward to the inevitable divorce between president Trump and Big Tech,’ said Laura Loomer, a far-right MAGA figure known for her conspiracy theories, who often flew with Trump on his campaign plane.
‘We have to protect president Trump from the technocrats.’
She and others said Trump should be promoting American workers and further limiting immigration.
Musk, who had already infuriated some Republicans after leading an online campaign that helped tank a bipartisan budget deal last week, fired back at his critics.
