Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy Say US Tech Industry Needs Immigrants Because Americans Are Low Talent

It must be difficult for MAGA Republicans to keep track of their own hypocrisy and all of their inconsistent values.

They’re supposedly patriots who love the Constitution and the rule of law, but they have elected a president into office who, during his last presidency, tried to upend the American electoral process through election fraud propaganda just so he could remain in power after being legally voted out. They claim to “back the blue,” except when it came to police officers at the U.S. Capitol who were viciously attacked on Jan. 6. Speaking of Jan. 6, MAGA conservatives claim to be anti-terrorism while making endless excuses for the terrorists who tried to help Donald Trump upend democracy via his “big lie.”

They believe in the First Amendment — until it’s time to ban non-whitewashed Black history and critical studies into oblivion for no other reason than to protect white fragility. They tell everyone on “the left” that if they don’t love America they should leave, while spewing their hatred for Democrats, “leftists,” immigrants, Black Lives Matter advocates (and/or Black lives in general), Muslims, the LGBTQ community, feminists, critical race theorists, pro-choice advocates, and, of course, the ubiquitous “woke” — indicating that they hate America just as much as everyone else does.

So, it should come as no surprise that there wasn’t much of an uproar in the MAGA world after a foreigner and a second-generation immigrant essentially said Americans are too dumb and lazy to gain significant employment in the tech world.

Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and pseudo-genius tech bro Elon Musk, co-chairs of President-elect Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” both took to social media Wednesday to defend the American tech industry’s consistent hiring of foreign engineers as opposed to engineers born in what is supposedly the greatest nation in the world.

From the Hill:

“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk wrote in a Wednesday post on his social platform X.

When another user suggested the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was denying opportunities to Americans, Musk argued that the poster’s understanding of the situation was “upside-down and backwards.”

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process,” the tech billionaire said. “HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy similarly argued Thursday there are too few competitive U.S.-born engineering candidates, suggesting it’s a cultural issue.

“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation),” he wrote on X. “A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture.”

“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer),” Ramaswamy said, adding, “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”

Hold up, MAGA America — are y’all going to let that Indian guy talk about you like that?

White Americans just let a South African immigrant and a 1st gen Indian call them dumb and lazy.

This isn’t the proud White Americans I grew up with. What happened to y’all??

Focused all that energy on keeping black people down and got the rug pulled out from under you.

— The Reckoning (@4Evashook) December 27, 2024

What’s truly interesting — I mean, besides Elon Musk, the guy who has spent the last two years running the platform formerly known as Twitter into the ground, complaining about the lack of tech industry talent — is that this is likely the first time anyone has heard either Musk or Ramaswamy argue that Americans, in general, don’t pass the meritocracy smell test. Both men are, however, staunch anti-DEI crusaders who, up until now, have claimed that diversity initiatives are what have stopped qualified (read: white) Americans from getting ahead. Now, in what is about to be Trump’s “Deport them all and build that wall” America, these passionate Trump allies are out here making an argument for why America needs more immigrants, not fewer.

You know — I’m really starting to suspect that all of their anti-DEI malarky is really just not-so-thinly-veiled racism under the guise of promoting fairness.

Let me get this straight. These two immigrants are against DEI because they think it advantages Black Americans getting jobs over more qualified white people.

They want to mass deport immigrants who they say are taking jobs and resources, eating cats and dogs, and increasing… pic.twitter.com/Iz4OZwMduj

— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) December 27, 2024

While some outlets have reported that Musk and Ramaswamy’s remarks sparked outrage among conservatives, there appears to be more right-wingers defending them than denouncing them as anti-American.

More from the Hill:

The debate appears to have stemmed from Sriram Krishnan’s suggestion last month that Musk examine removing caps on green cards for skilled immigrants. Krishnan’s comments resurfaced in recent days after he was appointed by Trump as senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence (AI).

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and staunch Trump supporter, criticized Krishnan’s appointment Monday, suggesting he wants to remove green card restrictions so foreign students “can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”

“It’s alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda,” she added.

Conservative tech leaders quickly jumped to Krishnan’s defense. David Sacks, who Trump has tapped to serve as White House AI and crypto czar, said the Andreessen Horowitz partner was arguing for the elimination of per-country caps on green cards.

“Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program unlimited,” Sacks wrote on X. “In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based. Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!”

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, also argued that Krishnan is “America First.”

“For USA to have the highest standard of living, generous govt services, and strongest military, we need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies,” Lonsdale said. “I’m against more low-end H1B immigrants; but let’s win at the talent game.”

So, there you have it, folks. If you hate immigrants, you hate America — in which case, you should just leave. 

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