The right’s debate over the H-1B visa program has exposed cracks in the MAGA world, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy butting heads with the likes of Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon.
Now, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, has expressed his thoughts about the MAGA civil war.
On Thursday, Sanders criticized Musk’s support of the H-1B visa.
“Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make,” he wrote.
In a three-page statement, Sanders called out corporations for using the H-1B visa program to lay off 85,000 Americans and to hire 34,000 foreign employees in 2022 and 2023.
Established in the 1990s, the H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to temporarily employ foreign workers. Supporters like Musk and Ramaswamy argue that the program is necessary to fill labor shortages and recruit better tech talent. Critics, on the other hand, argue that it drives down wages for American workers and leads to job displacement.
A cartoon by Clay Jones
Musk, who has been at the forefront of this MAGA civil war, has been publicly spiraling.
“Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” he wrote on X.
But as more MAGA rage was directed at him, Musk called for “a bit more positive, beautiful or informative content on this platform.”
Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has come out in support of Sanders, quoting his post and adding, “Bernie Sanders is RIGHT. Can’t believe I am saying this.”
Loomer, who called Musk a “welfare queen,” said that she doesn’t think “it’s acceptable for billionaires to have this much power and this much access.”
“What is it going to mean for the future of our country, our national security, and the incoming Trump administration if we have a bunch of technocrats, who are also essentially welfare queens because their companies are receiving government subsidies, and they want to take over our defense industry?” she continued.
After years of flip-flopping on the issue, Donald Trump recently took Musk’s side, expressing his support for the H-1B visa program.
Meanwhile, other Democrats are taking advantage of a favorable political moment. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose state has the largest population of immigrants, recently gave his take on the visa program.
“.@ElonMusk is right when he said: ‘you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.’ The same principle should apply to supporting our farmworkers, construction, and trades workers who build and feed our country. Top talent is top talent,” Newsom wrote on X.
While Sanders and Loomer are certainly unlikely allies, their unified stance against Musk on H-1B shows a potential bipartisan recognition that the current economic system disproportionately benefits the wealthy at the expense of the average American worker.
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