Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, as co-chairs of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by the incoming US President Trump, defended the US tech industry’s reliance on foreign engineers as the Trump administration prepares to crack down on illegal immigration.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy recently pointed out the lack of talented domestic engineers in the United States. Musk took to the social media platform X on Wednesday, December 25th, stating, “In the United States, talented and driven engineers are truly scarce.”
Musk believes that running a tech company is like managing a professional sports team. “If you want your team to win championships, you need to recruit top talent, no matter where they are. That’s how the whole team can succeed,” he wrote.
When another user suggested that hiring foreigners deprives Americans of job opportunities, Musk countered, saying the user’s understanding of the situation is “backwards and regressive.”
Musk further wrote, “Of course, I and my company would prefer to hire Americans, and we do so, because it’s much easier than going through the very painful and slow work visa process.”
He added, “However, the United States severely lacks talented, ambitious engineers.”
Ramaswamy also expressed on Thursday, December 26th, that there are too few competitive engineers born in the United States, attributing it to a cultural issue.
He wrote on X, “Top tech companies often hire foreign engineers, or first-generation American citizens, and ‘culture’ is one of the key factors.”
Ramaswamy stated, “If we are truly going to address the problem seriously, we must face the truth: our American culture has been idolizing mediocrity over excellence for too long (at least since the 1990s, possibly even longer). This does not start in college, but from a much younger age.”
He added, “A culture that glorifies prom queens over math Olympiad champions, or athletes over valedictorians, will not foster the best engineers.”
The debate appears to have stemmed from comments made by Indian-American tech entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan.
Last month, Krishnan suggested to Musk that he should consider lifting the cap on technology immigrant green cards. Krishnan himself was also appointed this week by Trump as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence (AI) in the White House.
Right-wing activist and staunch Trump supporter Laura Loomer criticized Krishnan’s appointment on Monday, suggesting that by wanting to remove green card restrictions, foreign students could “come to America and take jobs that should rightfully go to American STEM students.”
She added, “It’s shocking to see so many professional leftists being appointed to positions in the Trump administration, whose views directly conflict with Trump’s America First agenda.”
Conservative tech leaders quickly came to Krishnan’s defense.
Former PayPal COO and current White House AI and cryptocurrency policy czar David Sacks, who was appointed by Trump, stated that Krishnan “supports skills-based issuance of green cards, not unlimited plans.”
Sacks said, “In fact, he wants the program to be entirely merit-based. Supporting a limited number of high-tech immigrants remains a common viewpoint among conservatives.”
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, also believes that Krishnan supports “America First.”
Lonsdale stated, “For the United States to have the highest standard of living, the most generous government services, and the most powerful military, it must recruit the most excellent, brightest talent to build the most outstanding companies.”
(This article referenced related reports from “The Hill.”)