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.
“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.
Musk and other tech barons argued this week that the H-1B visa program is critical to ensuring American companies can find highly skilled labor which may not be easily available in the U.S. labor force and must be expanded.
MAGA hardliners want Trump to follow through with his promise to promote US workers and impose tougher restrictions on immigration.
Trump’s Saturday comments come a day after Musk vowed to go to “war” on the issue, telling one mocking opponent to go “f–k yourself.”
The flare-up happened after X user Steven Mackey jabbed the billionaire’s defense of the program by using the billionaire’s own words against him.
“Stop trying to optimize something that shouldn’t exist,” a line often used by Musk, Mackey wrote. “Let’s optimize H-1B,” he sarcastically added.
Musk fired back: “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.”
“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,” he added, paragraphing a memorable line from the 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder.”
The tech billionaire has been criticized by MAGA diehards including Laura Loomer and Ann Coulter — who say the H-1B visa program has been abused and needs to be sharply curtailed.
And influential voices around Trump have publicly begun turning on Musk as well.
“Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler,” former White House Counselor Steve Bannon jeered at the X boss in a Saturday post to his account on Gettr.
Musk said his passion for the issue stemmed from wanting America to remain competitive by attracting “the top ~0.1% of engineering talent” which he said was essential for “America to keep winning.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, who is slated to run the Department of Government Efficiency with Musk, backed Musk and offered a critique of American society.
“American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” Ramaswamy wrote on X.
