Trump Transition
Trump transition
Trump transition
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A fierce dispute erupted in the president-elect’s camp between immigration hard-liners and tech industry leaders including Elon Musk.
By Ryan Mac and Ken Bensinger
Weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump took office, a war of words emerged among his supporters over immigration and the position of foreign personnel in the American labor market.
The debate revolves around how much tolerance, if any, the new administration has toward professional immigrants brought to the country on work visas.
The schism pits immigration hard-liners against many of the president-elect’s most prominent backers from the technology industry — among them Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who helped back Mr. Trump’s election efforts with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, and David Sacks, a venture capitalist picked to be czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy.
The tech industry has long relied on professional foreign staff to run its businesses, a source of hard work that critics say is eating into the wages of American citizens.
The dispute, which erupted online Thursday night into acrimony, accusations and accusations of censorship, poses a political challenge for Trump. The president-elect has in the past expressed a willingness to grant more painting visas to professional painters, but he has also promised to close the border, implement price lists to create more jobs for U. S. citizens, and severely limit immigration.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and Trump loyalist, helped spark this week’s altercation by criticizing Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist, as an artificial intelligence policy advisor. In one post, he said he had hinted that Krishnan, a naturalized U. S. citizen born in India, would have influence over the Trump administration’s immigration policies and spoke about “third global invaders. “
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