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Elon Musk‘s X is now firmly the main meeting space for all things MAGA, offering a safe haven for the hateful and belligerent who fell in line with the movement. However, “First Buddy” Elon Musk and his DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy are catching MAGA wrath on Musk’s social media platform.
To illustrate what is happening with the proposed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) coalition of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, we look into their recent activity on X as the impetus of the critique both are receiving. On Christmas Day (Dec. 25), Musk posted a missive on X shooting down the idea that more American engineers should be hired over foreign workers, sparking a testy debate.
“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low. Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win,” Musk wrote.
An X user fired back with, “There are over 330 million people in America. Surely, there must be enough among them to build your ultimate team? Why would you deny real Americans that opportunity by bringing foreigners here?” to which Musk fired back and doubled down with, “Your understanding of the situation is upside-down and backwards. OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”
The H-1B visa, which allows foreign nationals to work for American companies in special capacities, has been criticized by President-elect Donald Trump in the past and he has shown his preference in hiring American workers first.
Ramaswamy added fuel to the proverbial fire by siding with Musk, who is an immigrant, and pushing the concept of hiring outside of the United States to bring a standard of excellence to the nation. It was a lengthy post from Ramaswamy and we’ll share a portion below.
From Vivek Ramaswamy’s X account:
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.
The posts from Musk and Ramaswamy have created quite a firestorm of comments from the likes of Laura Loomer and other conservative figures who believe that the pair are getting this wrong. You can read one of Loomer’s X replies to Musk here.
On X, observers are taking note of the MAGA infighting and potential for implosion within the incoming Trump administration and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet. We’ve got reactions below.
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