‘PUT AMERICA FIRST’: TRUMP URGES GOOGLE AND MICROSOFT TO STOP HIRING IN INDIA AND CHINA

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Big Tech firms—specifically naming Google and Microsoft—calling on them to stop outsourcing jobs to India and China and instead prioritize American workers. The message, delivered during a campaign rally and reinforced through posts on Truth Social, reintroduces Trump's longstanding “America First” economic policy platform, now extended directly into the operations of the country's most influential technology companies.

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In his remarks, Trump accused U.S. tech giants of “selling out American workers” by ramping up hiring in overseas markets while downsizing or freezing hiring domestically. He pledged that if reelected in 2024, his administration would impose new restrictions and incentives aimed at repatriating tech jobs and penalizing firms that shift operations offshore.

BIG TECH IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Trump's warning specifically targeted Google and Microsoft, two of the largest employers of engineering and IT talent in both India and China. Microsoft operates major research and development hubs in Hyderabad and Beijing, while Google has expanded engineering operations across Asia to support global products and lower operational costs.

These moves, while common in the global tech ecosystem, have long drawn scrutiny from political figures who argue that American innovation should be powered by a domestic workforce, particularly in strategic areas like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Trump framed overseas hiring as a threat to U.S. economic security, vowing to introduce policies that would prioritize U.S. labor in federal contracting, restrict foreign work visas in the tech sector, and create tax penalties for companies that “offshore intellectual property and engineering talent.”