Donald Trump is not yet in the White House and already some dissensions are emerging within his coalition, between his supporters from tech like Elon Musk and certain conservative figures with ardently anti-immigration positions.
At the center of the debate: the question of H1-B visas. They allow companies to bring foreign workers with specific qualifications to the United States. The sesame is widely used by Silicon Valley, and Elon Musk, a native of South Africa – and who had obtained this visa – is a fervent defender of the possibility of using qualified foreign labor.
The richest man in the world, who has become a close ally and financial supporter of Donald Trump, stated on his X platform on Thursday thatu'”bringing the top 0.1% of engineering talent through legal immigration is essential for America to continue to win” on the international stage.
Billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Donald Trump alongside Elon Musk to head a commission to slash government spending, also defended the use of foreign workers.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for far too long,” the businessman lashed out at X.
“A culture that celebrates the high school prom queen over the math Olympiad champion, or the athlete over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,”, he said. added.
Without radical change, “we're going to get our asses kicked by China“, the former candidate in the Republican primaries for the presidency estimated.
Restrictions
Statements that have outraged some conservative figures, accusing the two billionaires of minimizing the technological achievements made in the United States.
Ultraconservative Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's next deputy chief of staff at the White House, posted on X a 2020 speech by the Republican leader in which he marvels at the American “culture” that has “mastered electricity, split the atom, given the world the telephone and the internet”.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000A way for this influential advisor to recall that Donald Trump was re-elected with a primarily anti-immigration program and that, according to him, qualified foreign labor is not necessary for the United States to accomplish great things.
Elon Musk appeared to respond to him Friday evening in a post on X, writing that his electric vehicle company Tesla was named after the eponymous inventor of Serbian origin, who arrived in the United States at the end of the 19th century.
“He was a penniless immigrant whose inventions led to American dominance in the production and use of electricity”, the billionaire said.
During his first campaign for the White House in 2016, Donald Trump had expressed his opposition to H1-B visas, which he admitted to using himself within his companies but which he described as “very unfair to our workers” Americans. And he had put some restrictions on these visas in place when he came to power, before they were lifted by the Biden administration.
“Divorce inevitable”
The future American president has remained silent for the moment on this debate which is agitating conservative circles. But a position taken for one camp or the other would provide clues on his way of governing during his second term. And which factions he plans to rely on the most.
For some longtime loyalists, Silicon Valley has already inserted itself too deeply into Trumpist circles.
“We welcomed the tech guys when they came running to us. We didn't ask them to design an immigration policy,” quipped Matt Gaetz, a former congressman who was once chosen by Donald Trump as his future attorney general before having to step down.
When Elon Musk almost single-handedly torpedoed a budget deal in Congress before Christmas aimed at avoiding a federal shutdown, some Democrats quipped that it was a “President Musk”, with whom Donald Trump would ultimately be reduced to a spectator role.
It remains to be seen whether, after these first cracks in the varnish, the coalition led by Donald Trump will manage to maintain a certain cohesion once in power.
“I can't wait for the inevitable divorce between President Trump and Big Tech,” conservative influencer Laura Loomer said on X on Friday.