U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s camp has been celebrating the achievement and preparing for his return to the White House next month ever since his election victory. Over the weekend, however, significant cracks emerged within his camp as his most prominent supporter clashed openly with others over immigration policy.
Trump’s most vocal supporters likely didn’t anticipate a confrontation with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who helped fuel Trump’s presidential run. Musk has been outspoken in his support for Trump’s plans for mass deportations and stringent immigration restrictions.
Yet, it now seems he has one major caveat: the H1B visa, which allows foreign workers with academic or technical expertise to work in the U.S. for up to six years. This visa is a cornerstone of Silicon Valley, enabling tech professionals from around the world, including many Israelis, to live and work in the U.S. Amid a firestorm on X, Musk wrote to Trump supporters: “F*** yourself in the face.”
The controversy was sparked by Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who had been close to Trump during the campaign. She criticized Trump’s decision to appoint Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born tech entrepreneur as an advisor on artificial intelligence.
Loomer highlighted Krishnan’s advocacy for lifting green card restrictions and easing the hiring of skilled foreign workers, calling these views “directly opposed to Trump’s agenda.”
Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-chair a Trump-appointed Department of Government Efficiency alongside Musk, defended the use of skilled foreign labor, saying, “The U.S. doesn’t produce enough skilled workers and pretending otherwise will let China kick our a**.” Musk added: “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low.”
Musk quickly realized the issue’s delicate nature as his comments alienated many Trump supporters and proponents of the “America First” ideology. Far-right figure Ann Coulter attacked Musk, claiming he prefers H1B workers because they’re bound to their employers and can’t leave, unlike Americans.
“People like him want contract slaves,” she said, while others pointed out that Musk himself, now a U.S. citizen, is a South African immigrant.
After several X users told Musk to “go back to Africa,” he erupted on Friday, tweeting: “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. Take a big step back and F*CK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
Musk, who claimed he bought Twitter to preserve free speech online, retaliated on Saturday by showing just how little he values the principle: Loomer and others who criticized him lost their exclusive “blue checkmarks” on the platform.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
During his first term, Trump imposed significant restrictions on the H1B visa, but didn’t owe his victory to Musk at the time. In the early days of the current internal conflict, Trump refrained from intervening. However, in an interview published in the New York Post on Saturday, he appeared to side with Musk on this issue, praising the use of H1B visas.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” he said, despite having criticized them harshly in the past as “very bad” and “unfair” to American workers. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” Trump told the outlet.