Anger over insults within Trumpism over qualified immigrants from Silicon Valley

Are there any acceptable immigrants? And, if that is the case, what requirements must that person meet? That is the unexpected debate that has exploded within Trumpism.

On the one hand, the billionaires who support the president-elect of the United States, such as Elon Musk, David Sacks o Vivek Ramaswany -who will also be advisors in their Government- want the highly qualified immigrants in areas of interest to the technology sector can continue to have the H-1B visaswhich currently allows just over 65,000 foreigners to receive a job contract in a company that can justify that it has not found Americans with that level of training.

On the other hand, there is the most populist sector of the so-called MAGA Movement (the acronym in English for ‘Make America Great Again’, which is Trump’s most famous slogan), which is completely opposed to the entry of foreigners in any circumstance. That line of thought is what is defended, among others, by the ideologue of Trumpism and head of the president-elect’s campaign in 2016, Stephen Bannonor the far-right ideologue Laura Loomer.

Taking place on social networks, the debate has quickly degenerated into an exchange of insults between the two parties, until Donald Trumpin a manner consistent with his style, has settled it siding with Silicon Valley billionaires. The president’s leadership over his voters – who accounted for 49.8% of the votes in the last elections – is so absolute that his statements on Sunday defending H1Bs and proclaiming that he uses them to hire foreign workers on his real estate properties were enough. so that the debate was over.

Trump, like all populists in history, has to maintain a balance between those who give him votes and those who give him millions to get votes. And for now he has achieved it. But it is not clear whether this is a peace agreement or a truce. Largely due to the ferocity of the attacks, which began when Loomer criticized Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as Trump’s advisor on cybersecurity and cryptocurrencies. Krishnan, who already worked with Trump in his first term, was born in India, although he has had American nationality for a decade. His professional career has developed above all in the venture capital fund Founders Fund, created by the businessman who opened Silicon Valley to Trump in 2016, Peter Thiel, who was also not born in the US, but in Germany and, in addition, grew up in what is now Namibia and was then a colony of South Africa.

Loomer’s statements opened a canopy of thunder. Silicon Valley billionaire David Sacks – who is also an advisor to Trump, although only 120 days a year, so as not to have to publish information about his personal finances and also be able to maintain his business activity without any type of limitation – replied to Loomer, explaining Krishnan’s nationality. Sacks, who was also born in South Africa, did so, evidently, on X, the social network of his friend Elon Musk who, by the way, was also born there.

Evidently, all that anger in X caused Musk a reaction similar to that generated by throwing a cauldron of blood in front of a white shark or a cape in front of a bull. With his usual subtlety, exquisite good taste and evident respect for others, the richest man in the world ‘liked’ a tweet that has since been deleted, in which it was stated that Americans “are too mentally retarded” how to work in technology sector. “That has opened my eyes. It sums it up,” wrote the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and xAI. Along the way, according to Loomer, Musk restricted the visibility of the commentator and twice-failed congressional candidate’s tweets.

The only thing missing from the mess was Steve Bannon, who, according to the American press, has advised Vox, although Santiago Abascal’s party denies this, who addressed Musk in his podcast with a battery of insults culminated with a definitive “you’re not even American.” “. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy was doing his bit to blame the Americans of having a culture that “has revered mediocrity over excellence” which, in his opinion, “does not generate the best engineers.”

That is the key to the entire debate: the admission not of just any qualified person, but only of those whose training is interesting for Silicon Valley. Trump’s advisor and pharmaceutical businessman cited the television series on Musk’s social network as examples of this intellectual decadence. Friendsor the fact that Zack and Slater’s characters were the protagonists of the teenage series Saved by the belland not the class nerd, Screech.

With these statements, Ramaswamy demonstrated that in terms of popular culture he stayed at the beginning of this century – which is understandable, given that he was born in 1985 – although it is also not clear to what extent an elected president who, more than book presentations or concerts, Kennedy Center in Washington often goes to wrestling competitions represents that taste for knowledge that Americans seem to lack. Trump has nominated as Secretary of Education to Linda McMahonwho has no experience in the matter but is co-founder of the organization of wrestling matches World Wresting Championshipso the future of public education in the world’s leading power looks promising.

Public figures aside, the volume of the fight reached levels of, precisely, wrestling, but without a referee or rules. And all, furthermore, with a very marked racial connotation. “You Indians are the servants of the Jews”was one of the messages in With all the meat – and bad temper – in that kind of Athenian agora, but with blows, which are those platforms, Trump had no choice but to enter the debate and say that He uses H-1Bs to hire foreigners. Immediately afterwards the waters returned to normal, and even Musk, in a conciliatory tone, simply defended a reform of the H-1B.

The debate was thus settled. But it is unclear how long it will last. The issue of foreign workers has been a problem for Republicans since George W. Bush attempted immigration reform 20 years ago, after being re-elected, that his own party torpedoed in Congress. Companies, and especially technology companies, have always wanted more foreigners to be admitted. It stands to reason. They earn less than Americans, because they come from poorer countries, and, furthermore, the H-1B system ties them to their employer. If a worker with that visa loses his job, he has one month to leave the country.

But Trump voters want all foreigners gone. That includes everything from immigrants who tend cows in Iowa for the family of the CEO of Truth Social, Trump’s social network, Devin Nunes, to the presidents of Nvidia (Jensen Huang, Taiwanese by birth), Microsoft (Satya Nadella, Indian) , and Google (Sundar Pichai, also Indian). Reconciling these two factions is going to be part of Donald Trump’s mission in the White House.