Trump just announced which side he's taking in fight splitting MAGA base in half: report
David McAfee
December 28, 2024
David McAfee
December 28, 2024
RAW STORY
Donald Trump on Saturday sided with appointee Elon Musk over MAGA influencers including Laura Loomer, a report suggests.
Loomer is among those who have picked a fight with Musk over certain immigration visas, which he says are necessary for him and other executives to conduct their regular business. Far-right Trump supporters argued that big businesses should instead rely upon talented workers from the United States.
The GOP rift has taken over the news cycle for days, but Trump over the weekend finally gave his perspective, according to a report.
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Jon Levine, a political reporter at the New York Post who has investigated Hunter Biden and worked on the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, said he spoke to Trump about the visas for skilled workers in a phone call.
"President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue," the Post reported. The article quotes Trump as saying, "I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them."
Trump reportedly also said, "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.”
The Post notes that Trump actually "restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past."
Read the report here.
Donald Trump on Saturday sided with appointee Elon Musk over MAGA influencers including Laura Loomer, a report suggests.
Loomer is among those who have picked a fight with Musk over certain immigration visas, which he says are necessary for him and other executives to conduct their regular business. Far-right Trump supporters argued that big businesses should instead rely upon talented workers from the United States.
The GOP rift has taken over the news cycle for days, but Trump over the weekend finally gave his perspective, according to a report.
The video player is currently playing an ad.
Jon Levine, a political reporter at the New York Post who has investigated Hunter Biden and worked on the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, said he spoke to Trump about the visas for skilled workers in a phone call.
"President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue," the Post reported. The article quotes Trump as saying, "I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them."
Trump reportedly also said, "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.”
The Post notes that Trump actually "restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past."
Read the report here.
By AFP
December 28, 2024
Cracks have emerged in US President Donald Trump's right-wing coalition, which combines those seeking immigration restrictions with more restrained pro-business groups - Copyright AFP/File Kena Betancur
Donald Trump weighed in Saturday in a bitter debate dividing his traditional supporters and tech barrons like Elon Musk, saying that he backs a special visa program that helps highly skilled workers enter the country.
“I’ve always liked the (H1-B) visas, I have always been in favor of the visas, that’s why we have them” at Trump-owned facilities, the president-elect told the New York Post in his first public comments on the matter since it flared up this week.
An angry back-and-forth, largely between Silicon Valley’s Musk and traditional anti-immigration Trump backers, has erupted in fiery fashion, with Musk even vowing to “go to war” over the issue.
Trump’s insistent calls for sharp curbs on immigration were central to his election victory in November over President Joe Biden. He has vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants and limit legal immigration.
But tech entrepreneurs like Tesla’s Musk — as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Musk is to co-chair a government cost-cutting panel under Trump — say the United States produces too few highly skilled graduates, and they fervently champion the H1-B program.
Musk, who himself migrated from South Africa on an H1-B, posted Thursday on his X platform that luring elite engineering talent from abroad was “essential for America to keep winning.”
Adding acrimony to the debate was a post from Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants from India, who deplored an “American culture” that he said venerates mediocrity, adding that the United States risks having “our asses handed to us by China.”
That angered several prominent conservatives who were backing Trump long before Musk noisily joined their cause this year, going on to pump more than $250 million into the Republican’s campaign.
“Looking forward to the inevitable divorce between President Trump and Big Tech,” said Laura Loomer, a far-right MAGA figure known for her conspiracy theories, who often flew with Trump on his campaign plane.
“We have to protect President Trump from the technocrats.”
She and others said Trump should be promoting American workers and further limiting immigration.
– ‘MAGA civil war’ –
Musk, who had already infuriated some Republicans after leading an online campaign that helped tank a bipartisan budget deal last week, fired back at his critics.
Posting on X, the social media site he owns, he warned of a “MAGA civil war.”
Musk bluntly swore at one critic, adding that “I will go to war on this issue.”
That, in turn, drew a volley from Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who wrote on the Gettr platform that the H1-B program brings in migrants who are essentially “indentured servants” working for less than American citizens would.
In a striking jab at Trump’s close friend Musk, Bannon called the Tesla CEO a “toddler.”
Some of Trump’s original backers say they fear he is falling under the sway of big donors from the tech world like Musk and drifting away from his campaign promises.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s remarks might soothe the intraparty strife, which has exposed just how contentious changing the immigration system might be once he takes office in January.
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