As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, divisions are already emerging within his coalition, particularly on the issue of H1-B visas. This program, crucial for attracting qualified foreign workers, pits tech figures against anti-immigration conservatives.
Elon Musk, a fervent supporter of these visas and himself arrived in the United States thanks to this program, reaffirmed their importance on America keeps winning,” he wrote. He indeed considers these talents as essential to maintain American superiority in the technological field.
Musk and Ramaswamy on the same line
Vivek Ramaswamy, billionaire and co-chair of a commission appointed by Donald Trump, shares this opinion. He criticizes a culture that he considers complacent with mediocrity. “A culture that celebrates the high school prom queen rather than the math Olympiad champion (…) will not produce the best engineers. (…) Without radical change, we are going to get our ass kicked by China,” he declared.
These comments provoked an outcry among conservative figures. Stephen Miller, future deputy chief of staff to Donald Trump, recalled the importance of American historic achievements. It aired a 2020 speech by Donald Trump, celebrating a culture that “harnessed electricity, split the atom, gave the world the telephone and the Internet.” For Stephen Miller, American innovation does not need qualified foreign labor.
An influence from tech giants?
The issue of H1-B visas is not new to Donald Trump. In 2016, he denounced a program that was “very unfair to our workers,” although he used it in his own companies. During his first term, he restricted access to these visas, before the Biden administration reversed these measures.
This controversy reveals a deeper disagreement over Silicon Valley’s role in the Trumpist agenda. Some conservatives denounce excessive influence of tech giants. Matt Gaetz, former elected official and close to Donald Trump, criticized: “We welcomed the tech guys when they came running towards us (…). We did not ask them to design a migration policy. »
Donald Trump remains silent
Conservative influencer Laura Loomer predicted an “inevitable divorce” between Donald Trump and Big Tech. “Let’s protect President Trump from the technocrats,” she urged in a post on X.
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For the moment, Donald Trump remains silent in the face of this controversy. His positioning, impatiently awaited, could give clues about his political priorities and the alliances he intends to favor during this second term. It remains to be seen whether his coalition, already weakened, will be able to maintain its unity in the face of these growing tensions.