President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he supports H-1B visas, uses them on his properties and has “always been in favor of [them]” — even though he actually ran on ending the visas to get elected in 2016.
Trump in 2016: I know the H1-B very well, I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it. It is very, very bad and unfair for our workers and it should be ended.
Wew! pic.twitter.com/cw0B8bTJJh
— Unfiltered☢Boss (@Unfilteredboss1) December 26, 2024
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.
“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,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past.
The H-1B salary database shows Trump imported H-1Bs for such high-skilled jobs such as “front office manager” and “product data analyst” with a base salary of around $60,000 a year.
Musk himself on Friday threatened to go to “war” in defense of H-1Bs and told opponents of the visas to “f**k yourself in the face.”
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk said. “Take a big step back and F**K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
“Stop trying to optimize something that shouldn’t exist.”
“Let’s optimize H1-B.” https://t.co/tij6byJeW2
— Steven Mackey (@stevenmackeyman) December 28, 2024
You couldn’t find an American to be an accountant at X for $145,000 a year in March 2024? https://t.co/m7eT8EDFFY pic.twitter.com/8YrBjP3BzB
— Ben B@dejo (@BenTelAviv) December 27, 2024
On Friday, Musk said he agreed with an anonymous Israel First influencer account that goes by “Autism Capital” who said that Americans are too “retarded” to be hired by Big Tech firms.
Elon Musk thinks Americans are too “retarded” to do skilled jobs pic.twitter.com/DCL4JIKeJJ
— Charlie Nash (@CharlieNash) December 27, 2024
Incidentally, Musk deleted that post sometime over the past 24 hours.
Though the overwhelming majority of right-wingers on Twitter oppose Musk’s call to expand H-1Bs, he is receiving support from Malaysians like Ian Miles Cheong and Democrats like Jared Polis.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis urges Trump to heed Elon Musk and Vivek on immigration, calling foreign workers America’s “superpower.”
Follow: @AFpost
pic.twitter.com/JKO7AdWjBt— AF Post (@AFpost) December 28, 2024
Musk is now RTing anti-Trump activists who claim they will “follow him (Elon) into battle” with the MAGA base over H1B visas. https://t.co/g5drtHV091 pic.twitter.com/OrPJMIGpwg
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) December 28, 2024
When he ran in 2016, Donald Trump vocally opposed H-1Bs and said he would “end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program.”
Though there was some discussion of Trump cracking down on H-1Bs during his 2024 campaign, Trump himself told the tech bro All-In Podcast he wants to “automatically” give out green cards to anyone who graduates from any college in America.
2016 Trump: “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first.”
2024 Trump: “I promise to staple a Green Card to anyone who graduates from ANY college, even 2-yr community colleges.”
This isn’t… pic.twitter.com/6U8hRgghso
— U.S. Tech Workers (@USTechWorkers) June 20, 2024
Trump also called for increased immigration while on the campaign trail, insisting “we need more people, especially with AI coming.”
“We’re going to let a lot of people come in, because we need more people, especially with AI coming and all the different things,” Trump said. “And the farmers need, everybody needs but we’re going to make sure they’re not murderers and drug dealers.”
Trump supports legal migration:
“We’re going to let a lot of people come in, because we need more people, especially with AI coming and all the different things. And the farmers need, everybody needs but we’re going to make sure they’re not murderers and drug dealers…” pic.twitter.com/W5TfFpjMKM
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 15, 2024
As I noted at the time, Trump’s position on needing more immigrants to work in AI put him to the left of BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
This article originally appeared on Information Liberation and is republished by The Noticer with permission.
