Donald Trump has angered some of his MAGA base after claiming the United States needs foreign workers because it doesn’t have enough talented people in its own workforce.
The president made the controversial remark during a sit-down with Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night where the pair sparred over his administration’s policy on H-1B visas.
Trump signed an executive order in September that slapped a $100,000 one-time fee on the work visa but he appeared unwilling to consider any further limits during a tense interview with Ingraham.
The conservative host and known Trump ally pressed him on the issue, asking: ‘Does this mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.’
Trump snapped back: ‘I agree but you also do have to bring in talent.’
‘Well, we have plenty of talented people here,’ insisted Ingraham.
‘No you don’t, no you don’t,’ Trump said.
Ingraham again asked: ‘We don’t have plenty of talented people here?’
Donald Trump angered some of his MAGA base by claiming H-1B visas are necessary because America doesn’t have enough talented people in its workforce
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham pressed him on the issue after Trump signed an executive order that put a $100,000 one-time fee but Trump appeared unwilling to put any further limits, leading to a tense exchange
‘No, you don’t have certain talents and people have to learn,’ Trump explained.
‘You can’t take people off the unemployment line and say, ”I’m gonna’ put you in a factory, go make missiles.”
Ingraham continued to squeeze Trump: ‘How did we ever do it before, when you and I were growing up?’
Trump went on to reference a September incident where almost 500 South Korean nationals were arrested in the largest Homeland Security raid in US history as agents descended on a Hyundai factory in Georgia.
‘Let me give you an example in Georgia. They raided because they wanted illegal immigrants out. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives,’ he said.
Trump effectively said that the raid was a mistake.
‘You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like five or six hundred people, early stages, to make batteries and to teach people how to I do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the kind you’re going to need that, Laura.’
Trump admitted that he and Ingraham disagree on the issue but said he couldn’t expect foreign countries to invest billions in America to take people ‘off the unemployment line’ to do jobs they weren’t trained for.
Trump went on to reference a September incident where almost 500 South Korean nationals were arrested in the largest Homeland Security raid in US history as agents descended on a Hyundai factory in Georgia, effectively saying he disagreed with the raid
Many conservatives were irate with Trump and took Ingraham’s side in the discussion.
‘This is insane – we are going to lose the mid-terms so badly,’ wrote Anthony Sabatini.
‘We’ve never seen an administration crash and burn in its first year so badly – for no reason other than to appease donors and special interests. Trump has surrounded himself with the worst people.’
Another wrote: ‘Well, so much for America first. I’m never voting Republican again, screw them. I’m done. There are plenty of talented Americans.’
‘Absolute disgrace of a president, at this point there is literally no difference between Trump and Biden,’ said another.
In September, Washington imposed a $100,000-a-year fee to H-1B visas for skilled workers.
H-1B visas, which require at least a bachelor’s degree to obtain, are designed for high-skilled jobs which companies are struggling to fill.
While critics have argued that the visa is damaging to the American workforce, its supporters, including Elon Musk, have claimed that it is vital for attracting high-skilled global talent.
Many conservatives were irate with Trump and took Ingraham’s side in the discussion
Trump’s new order will only be applicable for new visa requests, with the annual payment for each applicant required by companies for up to six years.
A separate order signed by the president saw the introduction of a new ‘gold card’ designed to help fast-track certain visas for those willing to ‘make a significant financial gift’.
Up to 80,000 ‘highly valuable’ gold cards are set to be readily available, with the program currently in its ‘implementation phase’, according to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
At present, H-1B visas come with a number of administrative fees that come to an estimated total of $1,500. Lutnick insisted that he had ‘spoken’ with all of the big companies and that they ‘are on board’ with the new mandatory payment.
Explaining the new policy, Trump said: ‘The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying.’
The most recent figures showed the US unemployment rate at 4.3 percent in August, up a tick from 4.2 percent in August 2024.
Ingraham’s chat with the president, split over two nights of her show, brought some surprisingly contentious moments.
In a moment echoing the visa confrontation, Trump also clashed with Ingraham over his administration’s continued allowance of foreign students in the country, with the Ingraham Angle host asking him how allowing 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S. was a ‘pro-MAGA position.’
Ingraham’s chat with the president, split over two nights of her show, brought some surprisingly contentious moments
‘You don’t want to cut half the people, half the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t want to do that.’
He then added, ‘MAGA was my idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.’
Trump also pushed back on Ingraham’s assertion that hosting Chinese students at U.S. universities was particularly problematic.
The Fox host noted how they ‘spy on us, they steal our intellectual property,’ adding that they’re ‘not the French.’
‘You think the French are better?’ Trump asked about America’s first ally. ‘Really? I’ll tell you, I’m not so sure. We’ve had a lot of problems with the French, where we get taxed very unfairly on our technology.’
Trump defended China a second time when Ingraham brought up that a Chinese diplomat said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi should be beheaded over comments she made about Japan potentially defending Taiwan.
‘Well, a lot of our allies aren’t our friends either,’ Trump said. ‘A lot of our allies took advantage of us on trade more than China did.’
In a friendlier moment during the second-part of Ingraham’s two-night conversation with the president, Trump gave Ingraham tours of both the revamped, gold-friendly Oval Office and the Presidential Walk of Fame.
He also confirmed that he has ‘an obligation’ to and will sue the BBC for $1billion over the public broadcaster’s doctoring of his speech on January 6.
Trump also admitted that he has work to do on the price of beef and coffee, saying the latter could be handled by a lowering of his signature tariff program.
The president did criticize his fellow Republicans for doing a poor job of selling his affordability agenda.
‘The Republicans don’t talk about it. Republicans have to talk about the fact that prices are down,’ he said.
Trump was asked which Democrats the Republicans should be worried about in 2028 after having said the previous night that there were some good Democrats.
‘Well, I wouldn’t want to say, because that gives that person an immediate boost,’ he claimed, before bragging about his economy.
‘The economy is my thing and we have the greatest economy in history.’
