Last Updated on January 3, 2025
Steve Bannon said on Gettr earlier this week that the number one goal of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should be to eliminate the H-1B visa program completely, while Musk and Ramaswamy argued that Americans aren’t smart enough to fill technology roles at large companies.
Bannon took his position a step further, saying that H-1B holders should deported immediately.
He followed that up by saying American citizens should be hired to fill the positions currently occupied by H-1B recipients, and that companies need to have a discussion about reparations for American workers displaced by foreign work visa programs.
Over the past two weeks, a battle has raged between the political right and billionaire Musk along with his DOGE counterpart Ramaswamy.
On Dec. 26, Ramaswamy stirred up the hornet’s nest on X, saying that American children pursue mediocrity, and their foreign born counterparts are more equipped to do IT and engineering jobs in the United States.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer),” Ramaswamy said on X. “That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
He went on to blame sitcoms like “Friends” and “Boy Meets World” for the decline of American work culture.
“‘Normalcy’ doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China,” said.
Ramaswamy’s post sparked immediate backlash that has lasted weeks.
“Turns out the ‘waste’ that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans,” said Auron MacIntyre.
“The Woodstock generation managed to build out aerospace, the one before went to the moon, America was doing great,” said centrist Mike Cernovich. “Underlying your post is that we were all living in squalor until being rescued by H-1B’s. Then why did everyone want to come here?”
Musk later came to Ramaswamy’s defense, telling Americans to “FUCK YOURSELF in the face,” and saying that he would go to war protecting foreign workers in America. 
Ordinary Americans slammed Musk and Ramaswamy.
“I think a guy whose grandpa fought in WW2 should get priority when it comes to access to the American job market over someone who has never set foot in this country,” said popular X personality @plzbepatient.
The battle continues to rage on X.
