Pressed by reporters ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations on why he apparently reversed his position on the H1-B visa program, President-elect Donald Trump denied doing any such thing.
"I didn’t change my mind," said Trump. "I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in."
While Trump made some overtures in favor of high-skilled worker visas near the end of his presidency, he ran on sharp curtailment of the program in 2016, noted former GOP strategist turned anti-Trump influencer Ron Filipkowski.
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"The H1-B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary workers foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay," said Trump in a statement issued during the 2016 election cycle. "I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H1-B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions."
In recent days, tensions have flared in the MAGA community as hard-right activists have turned on tech billionaire Elon Musk for his passionate defense of the H1-B visa program.
Trump, for his part, has publicly taken Musk's side on the issue.
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