TAKE A 'MONEYBALL' APPROACH TO VISA REFORM

WHILE CLAIMS OF A “CIVIL WAR” within MAGA ranks may be exaggerated, a holiday exchange on X [formerly Twitter] underscored a growing fault line in the Republican Party between the working-class voters who propelled President Donald Trump back into power and the billionaire elites he's tapping to shape his administration.

- by KRISTIE DE PEÑA

CONTRIBUTION The U.S. needs immigration reform to avoid losing out on skilled migrants to countries such as Canada and the U.K., Kristie De Peña says.

These tensions between culture war grievances and economic pragmatism will continue to dominate online debates, but they also present a rare opportunity for Trump's administration to lead on groundbreaking immigration reform, particularly in new programs designed to attract the world's top talent.

The far-right erupted in outrage just days before Christmas when Trump appointed Indian-American tech executive Sriram Krishnan to lead AI policy at the White House. The anti-immigrant wing of the movement unleashed a torrent of social media attacks, accusing Krishnan of being an Indian loyalist intent on flooding the tech industry with foreign workers.

The backlash took an even darker turn when Krishnan's personal information was exposed through Federal Election Commission records—an act eventually claimed to be accidental but widely seen as an intimidation tactic.

Vivek Ramaswamy fired back against the far right on X, declaring: “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long [...]”

His argument found a powerful ally in Elon Musk, who defended the H-1B visa program as instrumental to his own success and the rise of America's most innovative companies. Musk, whose X profile prominently features a pledge to uphold meritocracy, framed the debate as a battle to preserve the freedom and opportunity that define the American dream—challenging the nativist right's backlash against all forms of immigration.