All the anger and racket over the US visas and foreign workers in the holiday season that took place in full view of the public suggests a bifurcation within the MAGA ranks-fan base on immigration.
All the angry words exchanged on this visa issue-a H-1B visa that allowed one to come and work in the United States with a speciality skill or talent-after all, could almost be the heated prelude to a full-scale war of influence up into Trump's camp in Mar-a-Lago.
On one side is the tech millionaire and immigrant-hence, Trump's right-hand man or for now-Elon Musk, who vehemently advocates the relaxation of entry restrictions for these visas.
On the other hand, Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, has described the H-1B visa programme as “a total and complete scam from its top to the bottom”.
Apart from the obvious fight for the heart of MAGA, it invariably pitches nativist rightists against the open-immigration globalist and embodies groundstage struggle over the future of Trumpism.
“The coalition of the tech right and the nationalist right was bound to be tested,” said Breland when asked. One gets the sense that said test came before the 20th of January this year, when former president Trump entered office at Mar-a-Lago.
The Democratic Party itself is divided into the camps of moderates and progressives following the 2024 elections, so is Maga busy spluttering out the civil war that had been caused by Trump over the immigration matter.
Silicon Valley, speaking through Musk, makes its position clear that it wants to get more specialists, workers' visas to get more tech talent to American shores.
It is no novel idea. Already, former Republican US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney promised in 2012 to "staple a green card onto the diploma of anyone who gets an advanced degree in America."
But the fact that "establishment" conservatives tend to concur in expanding H-1Bs in contrast to the political neophytes who give rise to MAGA keeps putting the conservatives' backs up. Romney was never a true Trump supporter. Besides, Donald Trump vastly reduced the H-1B visas in his first term; he has seemingly changed his mind about that.
While in 2016 he criticised the H-1B workers he argued were "substituting for American workers at lower pay," now he states that: "We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in. We're going to have jobs like we've never had before."
Trump seems to be sounding so much like Musk nowadays that immigrants are starting to worry that the Maga party's stance on immigration is changing. Exhibit A to those thinking Musk is the fly in the ointment is his idea regarding immigration and corporations-oriented policy.
Such developments only add to the frustration and worry of the big names from Trump’s initiates in Mar-a-Lago.
Tech kings versus nationalists
It does not make the case for a comfortable place blossoming between Silicon Valley and Trumpian immigrants in short supply, as opposed to temporary alliances that come and go with the mainstream. However, it does point out the fact that it is highly unlikely that Elon Musk and the tech giants cozying up to Trump now have lent their abilities to the real-estate tycoon as far as the presidency started or will interest Trump after his tenure.
In all probability, Trump will be able to manage a trade-off between the Maga nationalists and the CEOs of Tech. The re-opening of the US-Mexico border wall may satisfy MAGA nationalists; they might demand a more secure i.ravel across the border.
However, it's likely that deeper populist contestation lies in hyper-globalisation debates-anti-globalism that constitutes migration as just one part of a larger agenda.
A part does mistrust the further deepening of a global finance system that finds expression for Trump as 10-20 per cent tariffs on imports to the USA and 60 per cent on imports from China. This is the one policy that even Arsene Wenger would be able to come out of his slumber regarding shutting the US economy down.
Trade with that kind of economy will be out of the numbers of visas, but obliterating supply chains, especially from Asia, is a different war strategy.
The H-1B debate, significant as it seems now, may end up being a trivial sideshow compared to what the US ultimately decides regarding further economic protectionism. If Musk is willing to "go to war" over visas for skilled workers, imagine what the big tech titans will do when the stakes grow even higher.
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