President-elect Donald Trump weighed in Saturday on the immigration issue that has been roiling some of his highest-profile supporters online, telling The New York Post that he has “always been in favor” of H-1B visas.
It is not exactly true: Trump has waffled on his support for the H-1B program over the years, going so far as to suspend it late in his first term while his administration planned harsh new restrictions for workers seeking the visas. Denial rates also soared during Trump’s first term, while they plummeted after President Joe Biden took office.
The program is designed as a pathway for highly skilled foreigners to legally work in the United States, often in fields related to science and technology.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” Trump told the Post.
“I’ve been a believer in H-1B,” he added. “I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”
His support comes as his billionaire ally Elon Musk has been going to bat for H-1Bs on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which he owns.
To many people, the H-1B program represents American meritocracy, helping the U.S. reward the best and brightest workers of any background. Some entrepreneurs see it as key to staffing their businesses to fuel growth. Anti-immigration hardliners, though, consider the program to be harmful to native-born American workers, and some want to abolish it completely.
Trump’s hardline anti-immigration rhetoric helped power him to a second term in office — but there appears to be growing disagreement within his base over which groups of people should be excluded.
“America rose to greatness over the past 150 years because it was a meritocracy more than anywhere else on Earth,” Musk wrote Friday. “I will fight to my last drop of blood to ensure that it remains that land of freedom and opportunity.”
At another point, Musk said “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists” were “contemptible fools” who should be “removed … root and stem,” even though Musk himself been accused of fueling racist rhetoric.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who will work with Musk on a commission to cut down government spending the duo considers wasteful, also voiced support for H-1Bs, although in a way that rankled some of his fellow conservatives.
“American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” Ramaswamy wrote on X, arguing that the U.S. needed to import highly skilled foreign workers because of a supposed flaw in American work culture.
Fueling the backlash to H-1Bs on X this week was right-wing extremist Laura Loomer, who has been alleging Musk is not a true member of the “Make America Great Again” movement.
Loomer accused Musk of “censoring” her and stepping on her right to free speech by revoking her blue verification check, claiming it vanished even though she paid for it.
