WEST PALM BEACH, FL – President-elect Donald Trump has publicly sided with key supporter and billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk in a dispute over the H-1B visa program, expressing his full support for the program that allows foreign tech workers to work in the United States. This stance comes despite opposition from some of his supporters.
Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed on December 27 to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers. Trump, who had previously moved to limit the use of H-1B visas during his first presidency, told The New York Post on December 28 that he supports the program.
“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,” Trump said.
Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically issued for three-year periods, with options for extension or green card applications.
The dispute was sparked earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, as an adviser on artificial intelligence. They argued that Krishnan would influence the administration’s immigration policies.
Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump’s supporters and immigration hard-liners who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped. On December 27, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidante, criticized “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and framed immigration as a threat to Western civilization.
In response, Musk and other tech billionaires emphasized the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. Trump has promised to deport all immigrants in the US illegally, impose tariffs to create more jobs for American citizens, and severely restrict immigration.
The visa issue highlights the scrutiny tech leaders like Musk, who has played a significant role in the presidential transition, are facing from Trump’s base. The US tech industry relies on the H-1B visa program to hire skilled foreign workers, a labor force critics claim undercuts wages for American citizens.
Musk has spent over a quarter of a billion dollars supporting Trump’s election campaign and has posted regularly about the lack of home-grown talent to fill positions within American tech companies.