Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 

Video (First 5 minutes)

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

 

The holiday feud between factions of Trump’s MAGA base over H-1B visas came to a head over the weekend, with the president-elect coming out in support of the program that allows the brightest foreign workers, many of them engineers and computer scientists, to live and work in the U.S.

The broader debate reveals a significant rift in Trump’s MAGA base, just weeks before he is set to take office. CNN’s Brian Todd has more.

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The president-elect finally weighs in on a controversial issue that pits two of his top advisers against his MAGA base. Donald Trump now defends the H-1B visa program, which allows thousands of highly skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the U.S. every year to fill specialized jobs.

Trump told the New York Post, “I’ve always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”

Will Oremus, Tech Reporter, The Washington Post: “It’s one of the first signs of disunity or disharmony in the folks who support Trump, and who are going to make up his administration, and this is likely to be an ongoing point of tension.”

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Trump is now siding with billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump has tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk and Ramaswamy have defended the H-1B program, Musk posting recently that it’s the reason he’s in America and, texted, “Take a big step back and blank yourself in the face. I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

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But Musk and Ramaswamy’s stance is being slammed by Trump’s MAGA supporters, like his former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who said on his podcast that H-1B takes jobs from American citizens.

Steve Bannon, Former Trump White House Chief Strategist: “The program, from top to bottom, is a scam and a con. There is nothing in this program that should continue to exist. Nothing.

This is coders going to work for a third of the salaries and work like indentured servants. That’s not American citizens.”

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Trump’s comment that he’s always been in favor of the H-1B visas isn’t true. He previously opposed those visas and restricted access to them several times during his first administration, in an effort to curb illegal immigration.

But in the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump had changed his tune on skilled workers coming to the U.S.

Donald Trump: “What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college. I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country.”\

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Musk, who was born in South Africa, came to the U.S. as a foreign student, later worked in the U.S. on an H-1B visa.

And it’s his companies and those of other tech giants who’ve recently courted Donald Trump, which stand to benefit from more H-1B workers in the U.S.

Will Oremus, Tech Reporter, The Washington Post: “At least at this early stage, some of the tech leaders, including Musk, who bet on a Trump administration to deliver them policies that would be favorable to their industry and to their businesses, may be seeing some return from them.”

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News Anchor: “All right. Well, my panel is back to discuss all this further. Stephen, I want to start with you because you had a big picture piece for cnn.com on this where you write,

‘In the coming weeks Trump’s ability to reconcile the differing interests among conservative budget hawks, hardline MAGA lawmakers, and competitive moderates who may be vulnerable in the 2026 general election will dictate the fate of his aggressive legislative plans on immigration, budget trimming, and tax cuts.’

So this is a test, right?”

Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics Senior Reporter: “I think this issue does show the fissures in the new Trump coalition. It’s very interesting this time around. It’s not just the MAGA grassroots, working-class base.

You’ve got this new tech Silicon Valley aspect to it that said, you know, all presidents have to manage their coalitions. This is nothing new.

I think the question is going forward, will Trump side on more issues with Elon Musk and people, the millionaires and billionaires in his cabinet who’ve got strong self-interests as they go into the government for their own businesses?

Or will he step back and be worried about alienating some of his most loyal supporters. In his first term, we didn’t see many occasions when he was willing to get out in front of that core support.”

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Anchor: “Stephen, I want to start, I want to bring to you this from the Wall Street Journal editorial board backing Trump on Sunday, writing,

‘Trump may be wrong in trying to save TikTok, but he is right to endorse the value of H-1B visas in the dispute between Elon Musk and Steve Bannon. Mr. Trump is choosing the side of enlightened nationalism as opposed to the blinkered decline US version.’

So how do you square this with his America First mantra that arguably propelled him back to the White House?”

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Questions

 

Web Developer. Are Trump supporters united and fully support him on every issue?

Business Intelligence Analyst. What is the H-1B visa program?

Ethical Hacker (Tester). Currently, as of 2025, President-Elect Donald Trump is a xenophobe and racist. Is this correct or incorrect?

Mobile App Developer. Is there infighting and disagreement among Trump, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy or unanimity and agreement?

Game Developer. Has everyone close to Trump fully supported him? Who is Steve Bannon? What are his views on the H-1B?

Cloud Engineer. Elon Musk is a hypocrite. True or false? What is Elon Musk’s view of the H1B visa program? Has Elon Musk remained resolute and steadfast about the H1B program?

Security Architect. Is Trump a liar? Can he be dishonest and deceitful?

Blockchain Developer. Only one type of people support Trump’s MAGA. Is this right or wrong?
 
 
 
Software Developer. Are there lots of immigrant or foreign workers in your city, region or country? If yes, who are they? Where do they come from? What do they do?

Data Engineer, Scientist. How do locals, governments and business feel about foreign workers?

Machine Learning Engineer. Do many people from your nation work abroad? Who are they and what do they do abroad?

AI Researcher. What might happen in the future?

Quantum Computing Scientist. What could or should people, businesses and governments do?