A rift has opened between the ‘tech Right’, which wants to import skilled workers to the U.S., and ‘America first’ MAGA loyalists. Which side will Trump take? The Telegraph has more.
To glance at Donald Trump’s feed on his Truth Social platform this weekend, you would be forgiven for thinking all was well in MAGA world.
The soon-to-be 47th president has been serving up his normal diet of provocation and self-promotion: railing against the Democrats’ alleged financing of celebrity endorsements, for example; reposting a dig at Joe Biden’s fitness for office; plugging a Newsmax interview with his wife Melania. All fairly standard Trumpian fare.
Zoom out to the wider Republican sphere, however, and the picture is somewhat different, with a row taking place so vocal and bitter that it threatens to rip apart the coalition that swept Mr. Trump to power only eight weeks ago.
The question of visas for skilled tech workers may seem relatively arcane as a political issue.
However, over the past few days it has brutally exposed a fissure at the heart of contemporary Trumpism.
In essence, it is a rupture between Mr. Trump’s longstanding base, the traditional MAGA right, and the loosely described ‘tech Right’, headed by Elon Musk, which, despite being late to the party, proved so consequential in the run-up to November.
For the latter, the issue is simple: the U.S. does not produce enough of the highest quality tech workers, meaning that to stay competitive and prevent China taking a lead, the country must import them from abroad.
For the longer-standing MAGA loyalists, however, the issue is equally simple, but in the opposite direction.
‘America first’, the philosophical driving force of Mr. Trump’s original White House bid, means just that: the jobs, where possible, should go to Americans.
The disagreement has prompted a nasty war of words, including accusations of censorship and some pretty flagrant racism.
For several days, Mr. Trump stayed out of it. But on Saturday night, he apparently felt he could no longer stay on the sidelines and backed Mr. Musk, telling the New York Post he “likes” the H-1B visa at issue, and has many people employed on them on his properties.
With his belated intervention, Mr. Trump may hope to end the debate. But the fissures revealed between the man who bankrolled his election victory and the anti-immigrant section of his coalition threaten to overshadow the 47th (and 49th) president’s inauguration next month.
Worth reading in full.
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The MAGA base has never been against legal immigration – many of them being legal immigrants, or descendants of legal immigrants.
It is illegal immigration to which they object.
The US MSM are pushing the “split” in the ranks – can’t think when they would do that – and it seems Lord Toby has been taken in by it.
Exactly. Musk himself is the ultimate example of how a country can gain massively from immigrant labour!
Based on what he’s said in the past e.g. “Immigrants should come from countries like Norway rather than shit holes” (I’m not sure exactly what he said during his 1st term as president but it’s pretty similar to this quote) Trump isn’t against all immigration, he recognises that immigrants should be able to make a positive contribution to America and hold values that are similar to “American values”. The majority of immigrants from Europe, Australia and Japan, plus highly educated immigrants from other countries, will meet these criteria and be relatively small in number, whereas immigrants from developing countries will be low skilled and might not hold American values/adopt them and integrate. What is true of America is true of Europe, including the UK.
The article seems to be an example of journalists/”the elite” thinking that opposition to uncontrolled immigration is the same as opposition to all immigration. If any paper understood the difference I’d of thought it would be the Telegraph.
White Europeans entering the US don’t IMO count as immigrants in the same way that other groups do. The US is essentially a White European country. The UK is too with the difference that we’re still majority White British, whereas the mass immigration of non-British people into the US from continental Europe happened so long ago that they form part of the majority culture of the country.
Nick Dixon covered this well on Headliners last night. A country of 370 million, I’m sure there is talent if they look hard enough. If you want to go down the Race Bandwagon, the North American Indians were there first, just ask General Custer.
The logic behind this is Trump must do what we want to do because it’s so much cheaper!
Just a well-known lie of the pro-immigration establishment. They always claim their preferred policy choices aren’t policy choices at all but unavoidable necessities.
Not sure the usual western focus on cheaper vs better quality will ever flip back, the race to the bottom, driven by margins will always win out it seems in the end
Laber Rhabarber¹ …
We get that the Telegraph is anti-Trump and thus, trying to trump up stuff which doesn’t matter based on theoretical similarities. It’s already untrue what the USA must import highly skilled workers. These were obviously trained somewhere and hence, could as well be trained in the USA. This won’t help with any immediate need but eventually, it would.
¹ German idiom, literally blather rhubarb which unfortunately doesn’t rhyme in English.
Very good. Correct logic and I like the idiom.
What a load of BS.
What civil war? What bitterness and nastiness?
Looks to me like the Telegraph and others too perhaps are trying to sensationalise what is probably a pretty ordinary discussion about policy.
Which is ultimately why me and millions like me have stopped reading any of these rags or watching any traditional TV. The amount of garbage you have to take in just to get some nugget of actual useful information makes it completely not worth the trouble.
The MAGA movement is not particularly concerned about who is being employed in the rarefied field of high end tech jobs, one way or another. Stopping the millions of unvetted invaders streaming across the border is their priority. This is a non story.
Apparently a lot of the visas are given to accountants. Hardly any go to PhD’s.
Immigration of genuinely competent people can be a good thing if there is a real shortage which cannot be easily addressed internally.
The bad thing which people are rightly pissed off about is uncontrolled mass immigration of people who do nothing but lounge about on benefits.
The difference is obvious, and this supposed row is just a straw man.
Musk has backed off a tad already…this is an entirely false row manufactured by the Dems and their toadies in the MSM.
Very reassuring to see that Sceptic readers are not taken in by this phony split b***ks.
The US is headquarters to some of the world’s top tech companies as well as other multinationals. To remain at the top they must have the top people in the world, not just the US. These exceptional people have pay packages at US levels and their qualifications are heavily vetted before a visa is issued. This is a good thing but abuses of this system have occurred in the past. Better management of this system is the key. It has become a political hot potato because of past abuses.
There is no real issue between controlling and deporting millions of unskilled illegal migrants and allowing relatively few highly qualified immigrants to enter.
I think this is well put: https://www.unz.com/isteve/musk-vs-me/#comment-6920447