Trump picks Musk over MAGA; get use to it

By: Rex Huppke
Columnist
USA Today

..... My new hobby is watching loyal supporters of President-elect Donald Trump get thrown under the bus by Trump himself. It's exhilarating.
...... The most recent example came when the anti-immigrant MAGA base got in an Online deep-brawl with big-tech Trump supporters like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over the issue of H-1B visas. Those visas allow highly skilled foreign worked to stay in the United States for out to six years under H-1B non-immigrant status.
.....Big Tech companies rely on those visas, while Big Racism people on the Internet claim the visas are another example of foreign workers taking jobs from the "forgotten" mend and women of America who Trump promised to protect.
..... (Spoiler alert: Trump sided with Musk and the tech boors last weekend [12/28-29/2024] because they gave him lots of money and money is all he actually cares about: Sorry, xenophobes!)

Trump sells out supporters to back Musk

..... Herc's how the whole unbelievably stupid thing unfolded.
..... Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence. Because Krishnan had previously voiced support for expanding the H-Bi visa program, hard-core anti-immigraiton loudmouths like Laura Loomer - one of the most loyal Trump loyalists 0 and Steve Bannon got mad and outraged. That's kind of their thing.
..... Bannon said the H-1B program is a threat to Western civilization, which makes sense of your soul is so filled with hate it has choked off oxygen to your brain.
..... The madness and outrage swiftly descended into racist attacks against Krishnan's Indian heritage, prompting Musk and Ramaswamy to get big-mad and offer forceful defenses of the foreign-worker program.

Ramaswamy calls Americans dumb, lazy

..... Ramaswamy posted on social media: "Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 100s and likely longer) ... Trump's election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness."
..... Many MAGA folks read that as Ramaswamy calling them dub and lazy, probably because that was Ramaswamy calling them dumb and lazy. The MAGA base swiftly turned its ire on Ramaswamy, prompting Musk to call them "contemptible fools." He later clarified that "contemptible fools" was only referring to "those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists"and will "absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed."
..... I'm not quite sure how that narrows things down, but whatever.

Where do MAGA fans stand?

..... The bottom line is this: Members of a political movement fuels almost entirely by a hatred of immigrates were getting told by Musk, an immigrant, and Ramaswamy, an American via birth-right citizenship , that they are racist and dumb and lazy and should support a program that allows foreign workers to get U.S. jobs.
..... It prompted prominent MAGA figures like former Representative Matt Gaetz R-Florida to come running our way to avoid the third grade teacher picking their kid's gender - and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline. We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.
..... Somebody pass me the popcorn - this is getting GREAT!

Musk tells MAGA to ...

..... On December 27, [2024] Musk took to the social media platform he has ruined and wrote of the anti-worker-visa crowd: "Take a big step back and (expletive) YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend." (I'm not sure how one of the most influential people in president-elect Trump's orbit saying "(Expletive) YOURSELF in the face: squares with the evangelical part of the MAGA base, but I can only deal with one group of suckers getting burned at a time.)
..... On December 28, [2024] in an interview with New York Post, Trump finally weighed in on the visa issue, saying, "It's a great program."
..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAA!!!
..... That's magnificent.

Trump hated H-1B visas - until Musk told him to like them

..... First off, Trump said in 2016 that the H-1B visa program should be ended and is "very bad for workers." and now, miraculously, it's great.
..... Second, Trump constantly peddles xenophobic nonsense about how he's fighting for the little guy, how he loves his "real American" supporters and how he alone can save them from the scourge of scary immigrants and elitists.
..... But when a couple of elite billionaires go off on his base and effectively call them a bunch of non-skilled, racist dopes while rallying around a specific immigration program they like because it helps them ... well, guess whose side Trump is on?
..... Musk spent about $750 million to help Trump get back to the White House. So Trump is going to do whatever Musk and his fellow tech billionaires want him to do.
..... and the Laura Loomers and Steve Bannons and the MAGA loudmouths Online and the voters who let themselves get conned into believing Trump was in it for them? Well, I hope they enjoy looking at the underbelly of the bus. That's going to be their primary view from now on.

Follow USA today columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIAJerk.

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