Tech billionaires want compliant workers, not American ones
I used to think Elon Musk got Donald Trump to flip his stance on H-1B visas – but after a little digging, I found out that’s not actually true.
Trump’s businesses have hired over 2,100 foreign workers on temporary visas since 2008. Mar-a-Lago alone has brought in at least 1,670. In 2017 – the same year he signed a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order – his resort requested 70 foreign workers. By 2025, the Trump Organization requested a record 184.
Musk didn’t convince Trump of anything. He just gave him cover to say out loud what his hiring practices already showed.
But Musk does have his own reasons for pushing this.
H-1B visas are company-sponsored work visas used to bring in foreign workers, mostly in tech, supposedly because there “aren’t enough Americans” with the skills to fill these jobs.
Which is interesting, considering Musk said in 2020 that colleges are “basically for fun and to prove you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning.” So he doesn’t think traditional education is necessary for acquiring skills – but also claims Americans don’t have them.
Musk has more than enough money to train Americans for any role his companies need. He could fund apprenticeships, in-house programs, or school partnerships tomorrow.
Instead, he’d rather expand a visa program that gives employers extraordinary leverage over workers.
I wonder why.
Actually, I don’t.
The H-1B system is modern indentured servitude. Minus the literal chains, but with all the same power dynamics.
In the 17th century, indentured servants traded years of labor for passage to America. Today, H-1B workers trade job mobility and bargaining power for a chance at the American dream. They’re often locked into below-market wages because their legal right to stay is tied to their employer.
Indentured servants couldn’t leave if their master was abusive. H-1B workers face a similar bind. Want to change jobs? Find another sponsor quickly, or you’re out.
Just like indentured servants got hit with surprise “fees,” some tech companies saddle H-1B workers with visa costs or contractual penalties that make leaving financially risky.
Your boss isn’t just your boss. They control whether you get to stay in the country.
You don’t complain about working conditions when your visa renewal is on the line. You don’t push for higher pay when your green card depends on staying in your employer’s good graces.
Yes, H-1B workers are paid. Yes, they choose to come here. But when your immigration status is held hostage by your employer, “choice” starts looking thin.
Then December 2024 happened.
Trump appointed Sriram Krishnan – a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz – as his AI policy adviser. Krishnan said the U.S. should lift caps on permanent-residency visas. This set off a civil war inside MAGA.
Musk went to battle. He called opponents “contemptible fools” who “must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.” When critics kept pushing, he told them to “take a big step back and f–k yourself in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist then reportedly stripped verified status from Laura Loomer and 52 accounts for disagreeing with him.
Steve Bannon fired back, accusing Musk of trying to establish “techno-feudalism on a global scale.”
Then there’s Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump’s other DOGE co-chair defended the program with one of the most tone-deaf posts in recent political history. He blamed American workers, saying our culture “venerates mediocrity over excellence” and citing 90s sitcoms as the problem. Apparently, we watch too much Friends and not enough Whiplash.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy wrote. “A culture that venerates Cory from Boy Meets World, or Zach & Slater over Screech in Saved by the Bell, or Stefan over Steve Urkel in Family Matters, will not produce the best engineers.”
The backlash was immediate and bipartisan.
Nikki Haley: “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. We should be investing and prioritizing Americans, not foreign workers.”
Conservative radio host John Cardillo called it “one of the most offensive things I’ve read.”
MAGA commentator Auron MacIntyre: “Turns out the ‘waste’ that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans.”
Here’s the thing: according to Census data, the U.S. has more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. The shortage isn’t real. What’s real is that the system lets companies legally pay foreign workers less.
This isn’t the first time tech companies got caught suppressing wages. In 2015, Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe paid $415 million to settle a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to avoid poaching each other’s talent. “I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this,” Steve Jobs wrote to Eric Schmidt in 2007.
Tesla more than doubled its H-1B visas in 2024 – 742 new visas compared to 328 in 2023, plus 1,025 extensions. The biggest beneficiaries? Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and now Tesla climbing the list.
In 2016, Trump called H-1B “very bad” and “unfair” – a way for companies “to bring foreign workers into the country for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”
By December 2024? “I’ve always liked the visas. I have 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.”
At least that part was true.
A BuzzFeed investigation found that between 2014 and 2018, at least 58 Americans applied for jobs at Trump properties. One was hired. Mar-a-Lago rejected dozens of American applicants, then told the government there weren’t enough qualified Americans available. The Department of Labor approved all the requests for foreign workers.
When CNN asked Palm Beach County’s CareerSource if they could fill these positions locally, their director said: “We have hundreds of qualified candidates for jobs like these.” Mar-a-Lago used their free job placement service exactly once.
When Trump says “I’ve been a believer in H-1B” – believe him.
Just understand what he believes in: cheap, compliant labor that can’t push back.
Ramaswamy’s comments cost him his job. Within weeks of his “mediocre Americans” rant, Musk iced him out of DOGE. The guy who insulted American workers while defending a program that exploits foreign ones was too toxic even for this administration.
He’s now running for governor of Ohio. His opponent is already using “lazy and mediocre Ohioans” against him.
The real story isn’t about visas. It’s about leverage.
H-1B doesn’t exist because Americans can’t do these jobs. It exists because employers want workers who can’t easily leave, can’t easily negotiate, and can’t easily complain. It’s a feature, not a bug.
Watching billionaires frame this as benevolent policy while refusing to invest in American workers – and calling them “mediocre” when they push back – tells you everything you need to know about whose interests this system actually serves.
Go Deeper: “Brotopia” by Emily Chang – documents Silicon Valley’s culture of exploitation that makes programs like H-1B so attractive to employers.
SOURCES:
https://fortune.com/2024/12/28/trump-h1b-immigration-visas-skilled-workers-maga-backlash-elon-musk/
https://newrepublic.com/post/189681/vivek-ramaswamy-american-workers-suck-maga-reaction
https://prospect.org/labor/2025-01-02-president-musk-american-workers-h1b-visas/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/27/politics/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-foreign-worker-visas/index.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/vivek-ramaswamy-no-longer-lead-215602504.html