Tech billionaire Elon Musk further rattled the debate over skilled foreign workers by labeling many Trump fans “contemptible fools” who should be removed from the GOP.
Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency co-chair, Vivek Ramaswamy, ignited a clash on X surrounding the usage of H-1B visas in the tech world. The DOGE duo said America has a culture of mediocrity and a lack of motivated U.S.-born workers jumping into the engineering field.
Their position put them at odds with President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters online, who strongly rejected the usage of the visa program and characterization that the U.S. needs skilled foreign workers to fill engineering and tech jobs.
The online skirmish pitted Mr. Musk, who dumped millions of dollars into Mr. Trump’s campaign and snagged a spot in his incoming administration, against the president-elect’s most fervent boosters.
On Friday, “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams weighed in and contended that the anti-skilled immigrant laborer argument amounted to “MAGA … taking a page from Democrats on how to lose elections while feeling good about themselves.”
Then Mr. Musk responded.
“Yes,” he said. “And those contemptible fools must be removed from the Republican Party, root and stem.”
He later clarified his remarks and said the “’contemptible fools’ I’m referring to are those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists. They will absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed.”
Conservative commentator Laura Loomer, who along with other conservative X accounts accused Mr. Musk of demonizing and censoring her page, called on the X owner to “embrace free speech absolutism.”
“[Elon Musk] has been a Republican for 5 minutes and now he wants to decide who gets to be a Republican,” she said on X. “Elon, you said you were a free speech absolutist. If you are, let’s please let all ideas flourish and we will let the best ideas win.”
