His term has not yet begun, but the new administration of Donald Trump It already shows its first internal fractures. The technology tycoon Elon Musk and the most radical bases of Trumpism, the movement Make America Great Again (MAGA), they have been exchanging insults and criticism on social networks for days in a crude fight over raza e immigration that threatens to divide the supporters of the president-elect of USA.
It all started last Sunday, when Trump chose the venture capital investor Sriram Krishnanborn in India, as senior advisor to the White House in artificial intelligence. His appointment triggered a wave of racist reactions on the Internet, especially from influential figures from extreme right like the activist Laura Loomerwho denounced that the businessman was in “direct opposition” to the Trump agenda because in the past he had supported expediting access to residence permits to facilitate the arrival of foreign workers to the country.
“Mediocrity over excellence”
The conflict escalated on Thursday, when the businessman Vivek Ramaswamyalso a billionaire, of Indian origin and member of Trump’s new cabinet, came out in defense of his colleague, criticizing the American culture that “reveres mediocrity over excellence” of immigrant technology professionals.
His words opened a schism between the most nativist and ethnonationalist base of Trumpism, which demands closing the borders and restrict the immigration to prioritize American workers, and the economic elites who are committed to cutting costs, increasing production and, if necessary, signing the best foreign talent. Silicon Valleya mecca of the powerful American technology industry, has used the H-1B visa to hire immigrant engineers, many of them Indian, and thus grow.
Musk charges against MAGA
Musk added fuel to the fire. On Thursday, he mocked the MAGA movement by calling the heated debate over immigration “the biggest DKE situation I’ve ever seen,” a reference to the so-called Dunning-Kruger effect, when a person with little knowledge thinks he’s very smart. On Friday he was much more direct: “Those despicable fools must be eliminated from the Republican Party“, he valued at X.
In other, more conciliatory messages, Musk has tried to explain to his almost 210 million followers that immigrant workers can help boost economic growth. economy of the country. He once had an H-1B visa and has used it in recent years to hire hundreds of employees. Tesla.
Krishnan, a former Twitter employee, helped Musk restructure the platform to transform it into carry out layoffs “massive” number of public administration officials.
Internal fracture
In recent days the debate has pitted Trump supporters like the Republican Nikki Haley —also the daughter of Indian immigrants—the failed candidate for attorney general Matt Gaetz or the influencer far-right Mike Cernovich against other conservative allies like Musk or the billionaire investor David Sacksappointed by the president-elect as the “tsar” who will guide the policy of the new administration in IA y cryptocurrencies. Some of the more radical members of the MAGA movement have even accused Musk of censoring their reviews on X.
The dispute puts Trump in a complicated situation and reflects the balances he will have to make to keep the coalition that brought him to the White House together. “The fight exposes one of the deepest contradictions of the MAGA movement: It rose to prominence primarily through the white, less educated working class, but is now under the total control of technological and industrial billionaires, many of them immigrants,” he notes. the American digital media Axios.
