MAGA’s Future: How Angry Debates over Immigration Policy Sparked a Broader War for Influence at Trump’s Base

The divisions within the Republican Party, especially in the House of Representatives, have become increasingly deep, with moderates largely absent and the far right firmly in control.

Republicans united behind President-elect Donald Trump, but it depends on the issue, for example, on immigration, there is a clear dispute with the tech sector supporting special visas for the U.S.

Elon Musk, who bankrolled Trump’s election campaign and has become a close advisor, posted on X that “welcoming elite engineering talent from abroad was essential for America to keep winning.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump as Musk’s co-chair on a new advisory board on government efficiency, suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an American culture, which he said honors mediocrity.

Billionaires’ remarks angered immigration hawks who accused them of ignoring US achievements in technological innovation.

Growing Dispute

Some American political analysts have argued that President-elect Donald Trump's focus on the slogan ‘America First’ makes him primarily focused on the domestic front, especially since deporting millions of illegal immigrants was one of his main campaign pledges.

AFP recently highlighted the escalating disputes among Trump supporters, specifically between what it described as ‘traditional MAGA’ versus ‘big-tech MAGA’.

It is clear that this is related to the sharp dispute that has begun to appear publicly regarding immigration between Trump supporters, who are wealthy owners of tech companies in particular, and Trump's popular base, which opposes any form of immigration.

Trump finds himself in a difficult and confusing position, especially since this dispute threatens to destroy his broad coalition that brought him to power again, and he fears that this dispute will explode before he takes office on January 20.

Experts believe that this growing dispute among Trump supporters is an indication of the tension that may plague the US president-elect's term in the coming months and may affect his foreign policy in more than one file and issue.

The spark of the dispute began, according to Agence France-Presse, on social media during the Christmas period, regarding the issue of visas granted to skilled foreign workers (H-1B).

 The H-1B visa program allows 65,000 highly skilled workers to immigrate to the US each year to fill a specific job and grants another 20,000 visas to such workers who have received an advanced degree in the US. 

Economists have argued the program allows US companies to remain competitive and grow their business, creating more jobs in the US. 

MAGA vs Musk

In MAGA's first internal firefight since November's election, Musk called his critics among the Trump-supporting base 'contemptible fools who should be rooted out', promising to go to war on visas.

“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” he added.

Musk spent at least $250 million on Trump’s campaign, and Trump rewarded him by appointing him to head a committee tasked with curbing public spending, along with another billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy.

 Musk's electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

Musk’s remarks sparked internal verbal clashes over race, immigration and the future of the MAGA movement, which wants to stop immigration and preserve jobs for American workers.

On his part, Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House strategist and a MAGA media star, has vowed to rip Musk’s face off, urging the tech mogul not to get on the podium in his first week of preaching.

Bannon has accused Silicon Valley companies of destroying the middle class in this country and demanded reparations.

Last month, Donald Trump appointed businessman Sriram Krishnan as his senior AI-policy adviser.

Krishnan, an Indian immigrant and US citizen, was seen by some as being friendly to H-1B visas, which are often used in Silicon Valley to allow skilled laborers to work in the tech industry. 

This sent part of the MAGA into a frenzy, spurred by troll chief Laura Loomer, who declared the appointment a betrayal of the ‘America First’ movement.

Trump’s Dilemma

Trump, in turn, chose to side with the tech moguls by defending H1-B visas, surprising his traditional supporters and drawing criticism from moderates such as former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

During his first successful campaign for the White House in 2016, Trump expressed his opposition to H1-B visas, calling them unfair to our workers while admitting that he had used foreign labor in his own businesses.

When he took office, Trump imposed restrictions on that visa system, but these restrictions were lifted by President Joe Biden.

But in his recent presidential campaign, Trump has appeared more tolerant of highly skilled foreigners coming to work in the United States.

In a June 2024 podcast interview, Trump said he wanted to grant permanent residency to any foreign national who graduated from college in the United States.

“Trump knows he has to deliver on the economy, which is what got him into the White House, so attacking the tech sector would be a bad policy,” Donald Neiman, an expert on American affairs and professor at Binghamton University in New York, told AFP.

However, some believe that this dispute that has emerged among Trump supporters may not end in Musk's favor, because the next Republican president is certain that his real power has always been derived from the support of the popular classes.

In turn, Washington-based activist Omar Taha told Al-Estiklal that there is a clear difference between the Republican Party's pro-business and legal immigration Chamber of Commerce group, and the isolationist MAGA base that is against the issue of immigration in general and in detail.

He considered that these tensions will constitute a real existential issue for the Republican Party, with the difficulty of passing any legislation in light of this small majority and internal divisions, noting that Democrats and Republicans do not agree on the most controversial issues.