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MAGA up in arms against Sriram Krishnan as H-1B divides Trump supporters
Although Trump pick Sriram Krishnan found support in fellow 2.0 nominee David Sacks and US Rep Ro Khanna, MAGA significantly turned against him.
US President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan for the post of Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the weekend has sparked a huge row. Online feuds on X, voicing MAGA’s strong opposition to H1B visa extension, were fuelled mainly by what far-right political activist Laura Loomer believes is a counter-attack on the “America First” agenda, which the incoming president ostensibly stands for.
MAGA opposes Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan's Trump 2.0 nomination
In November, the Chennai-born coder doubled down on the need to remove country caps for green cards, considering how the 7% limit especially adversely impacts eligible skilled workers from countries with huge populations, resulting in a painfully expanded pool of green card backlogs.
Loomer started the debate against Krishnan on X, saying, “Deeply disturbing to see the appointment of Sriram Krishnan @sriramk as Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.” Claiming that his agenda went against the ‘American First policy,’ she added, “It’s alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda.
Also read | David Sacks shuts down angst against Sriram's stand on green cards, 'he's not career leftist'
“How will we control immigration in our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed this guy who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps in the United States so that foreign students (which makes up 78% of the employees in Silicon Valley) can come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”
Sriram Krishnan finds support
Although the Bay Area Venture capitalist and fellow Trump 2.0 nominee David Sacks defended his stance, emphasising “Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist,’ the fuse had already set off. Some arose in support of Krishnan’s claims, insisting that the US “need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies,” as highlighted by American “entrepreneur, investor, & philanthropist” Joe Lonsdale.
Far-right activists tear into Sriram Krishnan
Streams of sub-tweets and quote-posts consumed the debate as right-wing commentator Richard Hanania took aim at the Palantir Tech co-founder’s remarks. “This is one of the biggest splits between MAGA and the Tech Right. MAGA doesn’t want foreigners around no matter how talented they are. Tech people know that’s crazy. They’ll try to argue to MAGA that it is about letting in people with high skills but that won’t convince them,” he bemoaned on X.
His fellow conservative commentator and podcaster Scott Greer shot back at David Sacks’ “point of clarification” about how Krishnan “didn’t say he wants to remove all caps on green cards. He said he wants to remove *country* caps on green cards.”
Greer tweeted online, “Eliminating the country caps would allow Indians to monopolize green cards, meaning we'd get an even bigger influx of South Asians to this country. Trump supporters didn't vote to dramatically increase Indian migration.”
Anti-immigration synonymously equated with the ‘America First’ position
Conversely, far-right political pundit and white nationalist Nick Fuentes reminded him, “Trump said he would do exactly this on David Sacks’ podcast in June. This is precisely what you voted for.” However, Fuentes wasn’t entirely taking up arms against Greer in his online stance.
His latest X response serves as a callback to his own previous comments on how bringing in legal immigrants would always “betray” the ‘America First’ position. He previously said, “I believe as long as the Trump campaign promises to bring in legal immigrants, it not only betrays the America First position on legal immigration and immigration as a whole, but it also undermines any promises that are made to combat illegal immigration in the interior and at the border. It cannot be taken seriously. This is something that remains unacceptable. Fuentes’ ‘Groyper War’ agenda doubled down on not voting for a candidate who “insists that we need any more immigrants.”
Contrary to the white nationalist influencer waging a war against immigration, even the legal kind, Indian-origin US Rep Ro Khanna called out the restrictive ideology. “You fools criticizing @sriramk as Indian born criticize Musk as South African born or Jensen as Taiwanese born. It is GREAT that talent around the world wants to come here, not to China, & that Sriram can rise to the highest levels. It's called American exceptionalism,” the congressman fumed on X.
No end in sight for Laura Loomer's verbal onslaughts
The inflammatory debate is far from over as Laura Loomer's argument has since descended to greater lows in pulling apart Krishnan's reputation and inflating the buzz around the ongoing divisive debate. Sharing New York-based conservative columnist Gavin Mario Wax's tweet she channelled her previous accusations about how many ‘career leftists’ “are trying to get into Trump's admin to enrich themselves and get contracts at DOD.”
As Wax tweeted, “Tech Bros and Populists/Nationalists were bound to come into conflict once the Dems were beaten. Nature of political coalitions. Ultimately we should not surrender our country for cheap foreign tech workers. Recipe for disaster on so many levels,” Loomer instantly hit back, saying, “This conflict existed long before the election.”
She went on, "They tried to exterminate some of us. They tried to exterminate Trump.
Then they walked into MAL with $1 million and a nice tweet about Trump and they think they are forgiven .
Absolutely not.
It’s not a negotiation."
She didn't stop there. Continuing her endless streak of lengthy rants on the issue, she predicted the “love fest between Big Tech and President Trump will come to an end over China… and maybe even India! Or maybe both, if we are lucky.”
Loomer concluded, “Pray hard for this love fest to end. It needs to end now.”
