At a time when Donald Trump’s inner circle should be working on getting his Cabinet nominees primed for getting Senate approval, now time is being spent tamping down on a foreign worker controversy that has riled the president-elect’s base forcing him to have to weigh in.
The controversy revolves around comments made by Trump advisors Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk about America’s need for more H-1B foreign specialty workers, which has sparked a war with Trump’s MAGA base, which had been promised “America First” policies.
Longtime political observer Lynn Sweet appeared on CNN early Sunday morning and claimed that the timing could not be worse, forcing Trump to take sides, which is not going well.
Speaking with host Amara Walker, the Chicago Sun-Times journalist stated, “What we’re seeing here is a civil war being triggered by President Trump’s unelected advisers, so let’s just see where this goes.”
Immigration is the most important issue for the MAGA base, and now the DOGE, who appointed Musk and Ramaswamy to reform the government, has waded into policymaking.”
“So not only is this a fight Trump did not need, it is needlessly dividing the base,” she told reporters. “And on that point you made of Trump defending what Musk is doing and saying he will fight to the death to expand or keep H-1B visas, so while it’s true that it seems that Trump is backing him, the reason he’s giving is incorrect.”
“Trump has said that I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” she told me. “Well, he is not referring to the highly skilled workers who are eligible for these visas.
However, Trump has employed workers on his properties, including his vineyard and other resorts, who are eligible for visas as hospitality or agricultural workers.
“So in one swoop here, Musk has muddied the waters and created a problem he didn’t have to and we’ll see if Trump will continue to tolerate this kind of trouble-making, unnecessary trouble-making,” according to her forecast.
