Immigration a key battleground in MAGA debate

We live in the age of Elon Musk. This is the impression you get in America today. Musk is everywhere. The media is obsessed with him. The traditional media is frantic about his influence. Social media is flooded with posts, many by him and his supporters, but many more by his detractors, who believe he has an oversized role with and influence over President-elect Donald Trump, the transition and future American policy.
Musk’s opponents have criticized Trump for allegedly allowing him to overshadow his role. Criticisms of Musk have come from Democrats and even some Republicans, particularly after he played a critical role during this month’s budget negotiations that threatened to shut down the government. They accused Trump of “ceding the presidency” to Musk. The president-elect had to deny that — and he even had to assure his base that, according to the US Constitution, Musk cannot be president because he was born overseas.
Others have accused Musk of advancing his own interests, claiming that he is pushing policies and changes that would bring him and his companies money and opportunities.
Musk is new to the Trump world. His involvement came to prominence during the election campaign, when he donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign through a political action committee. Some reports put his donations in the vicinity of $270 million. By the time Trump won the election, this odd couple had become very close — too close, if you ask their opponents. At the beginning, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) crowd was agnostic about the blossoming relationship, having no real concerns about it. Musk did not do anything to ruffle the MAGA feathers.
Musk does not even have a pending Cabinet portfolio. Trump tapped him in an advisory role to co-lead the planned Department of Government Efficiency with Vivek Ramaswamy. The former hails from South Africa and the latter was born in the US to Indian immigrant parents. Their stars were shining bright in the Washington universe until they started working on reform and hit the hot button of immigration, which is explosive in the MAGA world.
Musk and Ramaswamy want their new department to focus on reforms that will make government agencies more efficient, such as drastic cuts to departmental budgets, slashing the workforce (they foresee a 75 percent reduction in the federal workforce) and streamlining government through cutting regulations, including eliminating entire agencies. In an interview with Joe Rogan last week, Musk warned that America’s sizable national debt, which reports have put at $36 trillion, means that immediate drastic measures are needed. “The country is going bankrupt. If we don’t take action, the dollar’s going to be worth nothing,” he said.
A new battle over the role of immigrants in America and the H-1B visa program for skilled professionals, which brings talented tech workers to America, ensued when they said they favored allowing in new talent from abroad to energize the tech industry.
The battle commenced after Trump announced the appointment of an Indian American, Sriram Krishnan, as his artificial intelligence adviser. The MAGA world reacted negatively to the appointment. MAGA activist Laura Loomer considered the appointment “deeply disturbing” and wrote that “career leftists are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s administration,” viewing that as being “in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda.” When posts on X pointed out the role of immigrants in driving innovation in America, she disagreed, stating that the US “was built by white Europeans … not third-world invaders from India,” as reported by Newsweek.

Trump came down firmly on the side of Musk and the H-1B visa, in a break with his conservative base.

Dr. Amal Mudallali

Musk weighed in by explaining that the “number of people who are super talented engineers and super motivated in the USA is far too low.” He wrote that “there is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” He invoked sports to make his point: “If you want your team to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole team to win.”
This argument about immigration goes to the heart of the MAGA movement — Trump’s base — which the president-elect seized on by using immigration as a key campaign issue.
The debate took a serious turn when Ramaswamy tweeted: “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence.” He added: “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
This whipped up a huge storm among conservatives and the MAGA world. They pushed back that America was great before the H-1B visa scheme and questioned the role of immigrants in building the scientific prowess of America. Some, like former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, said there was nothing wrong with the American culture.
Musk took to his X platform to defend his position and show that he was not backing down. He wrote: “America rose to greatness over the past 150 years because it was a meritocracy more than anywhere else on Earth. I will fight to my last drop of blood to ensure that it remains that land of freedom and opportunity.”
Fox News described the debate as Musk and Ramaswamy igniting a “MAGA war over skilled immigration and American ‘mediocrity.’”
Which side would come out on top in this debate would always depend on the support of Trump. And on Saturday he came down firmly on the side of Musk and the H-1B visa, in a break with his conservative base. Trump told The New York Post that he is a believer in the visa program: “I’ve always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas.” The president-elect revealed that he has “many H-1B visas on my properties … It is a great program.”
This effectively guarantees America will remain a magnet for talent and technically skilled foreigners, as it has been since its founding. It is a great win for Musk and it solidifies his standing and leadership in the crusade against government waste. It also reinforces the perceptions of his oversized influence in the upcoming administration. But it is also a testament to Trump’s practical and pragmatic approach, which is based on what he believes will make America great again.

• Dr. Amal Mudallali is an international affairs adviser for Think and former Lebanese ambassador to the UN.