Trump Weighs-in on Ongoing H-1B Visa Debate; Defends the ‘Great Program’ Which he Claims to ‘Use a Lot’

President-elect Donald Trump has defended the H-1B visa program, which has become a highly polarizing topic among his supporters. On the one had are Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, co-chairs of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who support the program, and on the other side are MAGA loyalists like Steve Bannon and far right activist Laura Loomer, who want to  to restrict immigration. 

Weighing in on the debate and siding with Ramaswamy and Musk, Trump told the New York Post that he’s “a believer in H-1B,” and has used many H-1B visas” on his properties. “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he said.

But, as The Hill noted. Trump has opposed the visa in the past. During his 2016 campaign, Trump spoke out against the H-1B program, calling it “very bad for workers” and stating that “we should end it.” However, recently he has signaled openness to giving some foreign-born workers legal status if they graduated from a U.S. university,” added The Hill report. 

Additionally, Trump’s claim of using H-IB visas is also factually incorrect, according to the New York Post. He has been “a frequent and longtime user” of the -2A program, which is for which is for unskilled workers the Post revealed. Citing federal data, the Post noted that Trump’s companies “have received approval to employ over 1,000 workers through the two H-2 programs in the past 20 years.” 

Trump’s remarks came almost over a week after the debate over work visas exploded since the appointment of technology entrepreneur and investor Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Igniting the debate was Loomer, who criticized Krishnan, pointing out his previous support for removing some caps on green cards and easing the ability of skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. “How will be control immigration in our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed this guy who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps in the United States so that foreign students (which makes up 78% of the employees in Silicon Valley) can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students,” Loomer wrote on X.

Last month, Krishnan posted on X about the need to remove country caps for green cards to “unlock skilled immigration” in the U.S. He added that “we need the best, regardless of where they happen to be born.”

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Loomer’s post triggered a series of online hate, with far-right activist accusing Krishnan and other Indian Americans of “stealing jobs from Americans.” One user asked: “Did any of y’all vote for this Indian to run America?” Another said it is “disgusting how Trump and co want to flood America with Indians as long as they have a degree.

Ramaswamy responded to Loomer’s post, and faced backlash for suggesting that Americans were not being hired because they were mediocre. “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer),” he wrote on X. “That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.” Joining Loomer was Trump’s former political strategist, Steve Bannon, who called the entire program a “scam” run by Silicon Valley oligarchs.

Meanwhile, Musk, who previously wrote in support of the H-1B visas, has modified his views on the program, in attempt to cooldown the MAGA base. Musk  admitted that H1-B visas are “broken” and argued that the U.S should make it more costly to hire foreigners. “Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically,” Musk wrote on X late Saturday in response to a thread claiming H1-B visas were being used to hire low-wage programmers and developers.