Summary
A rift has emerged within Donald Trump’s MAGA base over immigration, sparked by his appointment of Indian-born entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as AI adviser.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy defended hiring high-skilled foreign workers, emphasizing the need for global talent in tech, while far-right figures like Laura Loomer and Matt Gaetz criticized the move as anti-MAGA.
The debate reflects deeper divisions between Trump’s traditional anti-immigration stance and his recent openness to legal immigration for skilled graduates, signaling potential conflicts within his incoming administration.
How is anyone caught off guard by this?
The Republican strategy for at least the 50 or so years that I’ve been aware enough to pay attention has exactly and explicitly been to get the base all riled up with brazenly racist anti-immigrant rhetoric, make lots noise and spends lots of money intercepting/deporting some number of people, but ensure that enough still get/stay in, and are desperate enough, to meet the business demand for cheap and exploitable labor.
Trump and his cultists have been extra hateful and extra loud, but aside from that, this is all just business as usual.