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Donald Trump isn’t in office yet, but his incredible political coalition of anti-immigrant Maga supporters and global billionaires has begun to crumble.
The latest reason was the appointment of Sriram Krishnan as Trump’s senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence. Krishnan is an Indian-American with close ties to Trump and Elon Musk (he helped lead Twitter’s transition to X). Krishnan, like Musk, wants to make it easier for skilled foreign workers to come to the US on temporary H-1B visas.
Although Silicon Valley relies on these visas because of the shortage of technical workers in the United States, many Magas are against them, not only because they favor foreign workers but also because they can reduce wages. of US technology. According to a 2020 paper by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, 60 percent of H1-B visa holders in the top 30 employers end up paying less than the local median wage for assigned tasks. Trump’s stance on the issue has, unsurprisingly, changed; while appearing to support the visas, in 2016, he called them a “low-level worker program”.
The difference sparked an online debate between Musk and Maga activist Laura Loomer, a self-proclaimed “proud Islamaphobe” who wants H1-B jobs to be given to American science, technology, engineering and math students. “Our country was built by White Americans . . . They are not third world invaders from India,” he wrote to X. “It is not racism against Indians to demand the basic principles of Maga that I voted for. I voted for a reduction in H-1B visas, not an expansion. ”
Meanwhile, Musk defended the visas, writing: “The reason I am in America is with the many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that have made America Be strong because of H1B. Take a big step back and GET IN YOUR FACE. I’m going to fight about this you won’t understand.
There are many lessons to be learned from all of this. But, as is the case when dealing with anything Trump-related, one wishes the people who portrayed them were a little more venomous.
Loomer’s comments are xenophobic, but he’s brave enough to stand with Musk and raise an important issue, which is how to make sure US workers are properly supported in the face of global competition. . The fact that the government failed to do so in the manufacturing sector from the late 1980s onwards is one of the reasons why America got Trump in the first place.
Musk, on the other hand, is a selfish hyper-capitalist, who has no pretense about using his power to scare people. Loomer says he lost his X-verification badge and his ability to make money after getting into a fight with him online.
But he is also right that America needs more engineers than it has. Moreover, the success of the South African-born entrepreneur – like that of many in Silicon Valley and the US C-suite – reflects what is arguably America’s greatest strength: its openness to immigrants.
This fight is important because it shows a fundamental division in the Trump coalition that will only grow. The Maga crowd and the globalists disagree not only on immigration, but on security, jobs and free speech. This is a corporation whose biggest growth was the desire to bring down the previous government. Now that they are together, I think it is unlikely that they will be together in anything.
There are two other things to mention about H1-B dust. First, Democrats are already looking to make hay out of the divisions that are emerging in Trumpland. A memo written by a small group of lawyers, businessmen and academics published last week noted that “the Loomer-Musk conflict represents a unique opportunity to build coalitions with disaffected Republican parties.” , including those worried about the tech oligarchy, free speech. , labor rights and national security. On the latter point, Musk’s business ties to China and reported talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin have raised concerns in the security community.
The invitation is receiving positive feedback from some senior and former officials on the left, as well as academics, think tanks and trade union consultants. Last weekend, progressive senator Bernie Sanders weighed in on the issue, accusing Musk of pushing H1-Bs to get “cheap” workers, not smart ones.
Watch this site carefully. The battle between Republicans and Democrats for the working class will be a four-plus year political battle.
Second, as I find myself in awe of writing this, Trump himself has a policy idea that could help boost the number of Americans qualified for good tech jobs. He proposed the creation of a free online university called the American Academy, which would offer high-quality courses and accept transfer credits from other colleges and universities, to help push back against the rise of tuition fees and student loans. The leftist magazine Washington Monthly recently praised the idea.
This type of online education, along with programs that award high school students with a two-year college degree, is a clear way to quickly train more technology workers. My one suggestion – please put someone other than Musk or Loomer in charge.
