WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has yet to move back into the White House and already fissures are opening in his coalition, amid squabbling between Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley "tech bros" and his hardcore Republican backers.
At the heart of the internecine sniping is Trump's central election issue - immigration - and the H1-B visas that allow companies to bring foreigners with specific qualifications to the United States.
The permits are widely used in Silicon Valley, and Musk - who himself came to the United States from South Africa on an H1-B - is a fervent advocate.
The world's richest man, who bankrolled Trump's election campaign and has become a close advisor, posted on X Thursday (Dec 27) that welcoming elite engineering talent from abroad was "essential for America to keep winning".
Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump as Musk's co-chair on a new advisory board on government efficiency, suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an "American culture", which he said venerates mediocrity.
"A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he posted, warning that, without a change in attitude, "we'll have our asses handed to us by China".
Scepticism over the benefits of immigration is a hallmark of Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and the billionaires' remarks angered immigration hawks who accused them of ignoring US achievements in technological innovation.
Incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted a 2020 speech in which Trump marvelled at the American "culture" that had "harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet".
The post appeared calculated to remind critics that Trump won November's election on a platform of getting tough on immigration and boosting American manufacturing.
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At the heart of the internecine sniping is Trump's central election issue - immigration - and the H1-B visas that allow companies to bring foreigners with specific qualifications to the United States.
The permits are widely used in Silicon Valley, and Musk - who himself came to the United States from South Africa on an H1-B - is a fervent advocate.
The world's richest man, who bankrolled Trump's election campaign and has become a close advisor, posted on X Thursday (Dec 27) that welcoming elite engineering talent from abroad was "essential for America to keep winning".
Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump as Musk's co-chair on a new advisory board on government efficiency, suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an "American culture", which he said venerates mediocrity.
"A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he posted, warning that, without a change in attitude, "we'll have our asses handed to us by China".
Scepticism over the benefits of immigration is a hallmark of Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and the billionaires' remarks angered immigration hawks who accused them of ignoring US achievements in technological innovation.
Incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted a 2020 speech in which Trump marvelled at the American "culture" that had "harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet".
The post appeared calculated to remind critics that Trump won November's election on a platform of getting tough on immigration and boosting American manufacturing.
Cracks emerge in Trump's MAGA coalition
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has yet to move back into the White House and already fissures are opening in his coalition, amid squabbling between Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley "tech bros" and his hardcore Republican backers. At the heart of the internecine sniping is Trump's central election...
