Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and other members of President-elect Donald Trump's Silicon Valley coalition are clashing with the hardline anti-immigrant faction of the MAGA movement, and this reportedly resulted in Musk removing verification badges from far-right critics. in x.
The conflict centers on Musk and Ramaswamy's recent praise of foreign tech workers, which began shortly after Indian immigrant Sriram Krishnan joined the team of Trump's cryptocurrency and ai czar David Sacks. He has pitted Trump's tech mogul donor class against his former network of far-right influencers like the activist and Trump's partner, Laura Loomer while escalating into racist rhetoric against American Indians in particular. The ugly, extremely online fight between America's far-right influence network parallels the current immigration debate. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/26/congress-high-tech-immigrants-00196009″>being discussed more quietly in Washington.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric was the cornerstone of Trump's speech to voters; in addition to promoting false and racist rumors about immigrants and promising mass deportations that could destabilize the American economyHe is expected to revive the crackdown on H-1B visas he imposed during his first term. At the same time, Trump relies heavily on support from parts of Silicon Valley, which relies on the H-1B program for engineers and other skilled workers. Both positions are represented in Trump's inner circle: Trump's national security advisor will be Stephen Miller, immigration crackdown advocatefor example, while Sacks will shape technology policy and Musk and Ramaswamy will run the unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE.
“These attacks have become crude and not in the Christmas spirit.”
The inherent tension became evident when Sacks announced Krishnan's appointment to x and then began receiving attacks from popular pro-Trump voices. Loomer, who joined Trump on the campaign trail, <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1871262423950520454″>said the choice was “deeply disturbing,” pointing to a post by Krishnan calling on DOGE to “unlock skilled immigration.” Another user's response, highlighted by Sacks, asked: “Did any of you vote for this Indian to rule the United States?” Sacks <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/1871731437906645421″>answered that “Sriram has been a US citizen for a decade. He is not “running America.” … These attacks have become crude and not in the spirit of Christmas.”
Musk and Ramaswamy then fueled the conflict by praising migrant workers. (Musk himself, of course, immigrated to the US from South Africa under allegedly illegal circumstances.) “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit the best talent wherever they are.” <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1871978282289082585″>Musk posted on ximplicitly supporting channels like the H-1B program. Musk said he would “of course” prefer to hire Americans than go through the “painful and time-consuming” work visa process, but “there is a serious shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in the United States.”
Ramaswamy intervened with a theory that American pop culture like 90s sitcom Family matters “We worship mediocrity over excellence.” An engineer from x escalated the situation. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/elon-musk-defends-x-engineer-who-posted-racist-anti-white-rant-he-is-a-troll-but-went-a-little-over-the-top/”>by stating that “America would not exist if it were not for Indian excellence,” in a series of posts that Musk called “a little exaggerated.”
On the contrary, figures like Loomer began criticizing Musk, questioning his claims about the need for foreign workers. <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1872403334637699383″>criticizing Tesla's H-1B wagesand <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1872358453643022487″>calling him “a total fucking drag on the Trump transition” who “overstayed his welcome at Mar a Lago in an effort to become Trump's supporting piece.”
Trouble in Musk's free speech paradise
Over the past day, the debate has shifted to a new question: whether Musk has been <a target="_blank" href="https://newrepublic.com/post/189683/elon-musk-critics-x-immigration-paid-price-verification”>banning his critics of x's paid verification system, contradicting his frequent claims of having freed x from the “censorship” of moderation. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mediaite.com/tech/elon-musks-critics-stripped-of-verification-badge-after-publicly-challenging-billionaire-the-beginning-stages-of-censorship/”>Loom et al. They have reported losing their verified status on the platform and being excluded from monetization options. (It's unclear whether Loomer will handcuff himself to company headquarters again in protest.) And Musk has <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1872497302369382670″>posted a “reminder” on x that “if verified and much more credible subscriber accounts (not bots) mute/block your account compared to those who like your posts, your reach will decrease significantly.” It's a not-so-subtle reminder that x is, despite Musk's promises of freedom, a private platform controlled by a rather sensitive man.
None of the issues here are new, including anti-Indian sentiments: Usha Vance, the Indian-American wife of Trump's running mate JD Vance, faced racist attacks in the electoral campaign. However, they are newly relevant as Trump prepares to take office and decide which faction to prioritize concerns.
Figures like Musk and Loomer once found common cause in attacking non-conservative “Big tech” figures, and artifacts of that alliance can be found in this debate. Indian-born former twitter executives Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde, who were attacked by Musk during his acquisition, were called examples of “bad Indians” by conservative Indian-American commentator and Recipient of Trump's pardon Dinesh D'Souza. (“I'm obviously one of the good ones,” D'Souza clarified). Fundamentally, both sides remain hostile to immigration outside of a select group of exceptions; Musk has even promoted the spurious and anti-Semitic “great replacement” theory.
But in 2024, Big tech CEOs have overwhelmingly signaled that they will avoid antagonizing Trump, who could not only crack down on immigration but also gut parts of the tech industry with tariffs. x, where the MAGA right tends to be online, has lost non-conservative users to platforms like Threads and Bluesky. Trump's big-name supporters have successfully purged or silenced much of their opposition; Now they are settling scores among themselves.
