How Mike Johnson helps Trump gaslight his base — with an assist from Fox News
When a radicalized US Army veteran mowed down 15 people in New Orleans, Donald Trump wasted no time pointing his finger, blaming immigrants and a non-existent ‘open border’ for the tragedy:
This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS... The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors… are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME.... Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country.
On-brand, Trump ignored police intelligence that identified the offender as a US citizen, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant and combat veteran from Texas.
Also on-brand, Trump co-opted the massacre to redirect attention from his bait and switch on immigration. After convincing 49% of the nation’s voters that immigrants were the root of all evil, leading to a 1% win Fox News calls a landslide, Trump sided with Elon Musk to defend hiring more foreigners for high-paid jobs under the H1-B visa program.
Johnson helps Trump gaslight his base
House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Trump’s lie about New Orleans, telling Fox viewers on Thursday that he and Congressional Republicans had repeatedly warned the Biden administration “about the wide open border,” and “dangerous people coming here in droves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country.”
Aside from deliberate gaslighting, neither Trump nor Johnson mentioned how Trump tanked the bi-partisan border bill almost a year ago, just so he could fearmonger through the election. If Democrats borrowed Republicans’ firehose of lies, they’d bullhorn that 15 NOLA victims would be alive today had Trump not killed immigration reform a year ago.
Trump/Johnson’s perfidy aside, no-one has forgotten Trump’s re-election mantra that ‘illegals’ were stealing American jobs, murdering Americans and eating their pets. The internecine war between MAGA’s anti-immigrant faction and its techbro donors is a by-product of Trump’s own disordered thinking, and it is just the beginning.
The H1-B debacle
The heart of MAGA’s current discontent is the H1-B program, which allows employers to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations. According to the US Department of Labor, a ‘specialty occupation’ is one that requires highly specialized knowledge and at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent.
Found at 8 U.S.C. § 1182 et seq, the law requires employers to pay H1-B employees the prevailing wage for their job title and location, which is meant to protect workers from exploitation but clearly doesn’t. H1-B critics complain that, in addition to the potential for exploitation, hiring aliens disincentivizes companies from developing and hiring American talent. Bernie Sanders’ data show that, in 2022 and 2023, the top 30 corporations H1-B laid off at least 85,000 American workers, at the same time they hired over 34,000 new H-1B guest workers.
Last week Elon Musk, who brazenly purchased his proximity to power with wealth built in part on exploited H1-B talent, threatened to go to “war” to protect the program.
After being obsessed with immigrants in general and the H1-B visa program in particular, and after restricting access to foreign worker visas in the past, Trump has now switched his tune to match Musk’s, saying he has “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, whose most educated talent includes convicted tax fraud accountants and convicted lawyers facing debarment, has not explained why cooks, servers, housekeepers and groundskeepers at his motels need high tech visa clearances.
Defunding education then calling the uneducated ‘retarded’
Aside from exploiting foreign workers desperate to remain in the U.S., H1-B also rewards Republicans for de-funding public education, punishing uneducated Americans whom Musk and the broligarchy deem too “retarded” to power America’s high-tech work force.
Proving that a broken clock is still correct twice a day, rightwing provocateur Laura Loomer argues that these high tech jobs “should be given to American STEM students,” and that Musk et al are enriching themselves at the expense of MAGA loyalists. Musk responded with characteristic immaturity, telling critics to go f-ck themselves in the face, prompting Steve Bannon to call Musk a “toddler” who needed a “wellness check.” Matt Gaetz said Musk was trying to “engineer” immigration policies, while conservative Ann Coulter showed an uncharacteristic concern for labor, stating, “American workers can leave a company.Imported H1-B workers can’t. Tech wants indentured servants, not high-skilled workers.”
Musk bolstered his critics’ argument when he admitted that H1-B engineers accept lower salaries just to work in the US. As Musk framed the debate, “It’s much easier to bring in skilled workers who might not do quite as good a job but will work for a fraction of the cost and be happy just to be here.” Got exploitation, anyone?
Fox anchors will sell Trump until they can’t
The world’s richest man, Musk prefers to pay less for talent and no surprise there. What is yet unknown is how MAGA will react when Trump repeatedly kicks them to the curb.
Trump created anti-immigrant fervor to attract low-information voters, but as long as Citizens United is good law, Republicans will always side with their wealthy donors over MAGA. Similar dynamics will surface when they try to cut Social Security, impose regressive tariffs, or trim the ACA to fund tax cuts for the rich; the intraparty rifts have only just begun.
As Trump crosses the line from ignorant bombast to dangerous, Fox News will eventually have to abandon him, given his lame duck status. Too bad Murdoch worked so hard to bash immigrants and accents-- he could have imported some foreign models and filled those anchor seats for less.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.