MAGAReport 12/27/24: MAGA Infighting

The first real MAGA fight is happening over immigration

If you have been spending this week doing usual holiday things and not engaging with MAGA social media, you have missed Big Drama!

Vivek Ramaswamy (co-chair of DOGE with Elon), made a long Twitter post saying that the reason tech companies want to hire immigrants is because “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long”. The post was a pretty harsh takedown of American culture, including references to Saved By The Bell and Boy Meets World.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

People got mad. The community notes section of Twitter is amazing, featuring comments like “In ‘Saved by the Bell,’ Zach Morris scored a 1502 on the SAT and was admitted to Yale.”

Then Elon Musk chimed in, generally in support of American companies hiring the best people from around the world. We will not quote him here.

If you have blissfully forgotten, the Trump Campaign literally printed up “MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW” signs that they handed out at rallies at at the RNC this summer. Despite their constant (dishonest) claim of supporting immigrants who come here “the right way”, the MAGA faithful are generally not in favor of H1B visa holders.

Laura Loomer jumped into the discussion on Twitter.

OH MAN DID SHE MAKE ELON MAD with this! He removed her “verified” blue checkmark, which demonetized her account. As a verified account, she received payment based on engagement each month, but she can’t get that now. Then, Elon canceled all her subscriptions (like patreon or substack where you pay a fee each month for bonus content, but done directly through Twitter) and sent messages to her subscribers saying she canceled them (which she didn’t).

I cannot believe I am siding with Laura Loomer today, but that is some anti-free speech nonsense on Elon’s part.

Then Ann Coulter chimes in:

And again, I can’t believe it but I’m also sort of siding with Ann Coulter on this? I have seen the struggle my students face trying to get H1B visas and being tied to the company that sponsors them. I don’t think Ann and I would agree on how to fix that system, but she’s right that it’s messed up for the workers.

These are all high-profile Trump people, so what is going on over in the MAGA forums? Basically the same kind of debate, but weirder. For example, consider this gem from a user arguing in favor of America hiring the best and brightest from around the world:

Ever hear of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar? He is who the Chandra X-ray satellite was named after. Europe had the same advantage the United States did: it was a magnet for the world's best and brightest. This is why we should favor legal migration from Europe. They already have lots of the good ones.

He starts celebrating Chandrasekhar, and goes on to say “this is why we need legal migration from Europe”. Chandrasekhar is not from Europe, unless Punjab, which was technically British India at the time he was born, counts as Europe (it does not). Region-of-orign issues aside, this led to the following discussion:

• If they can help our country, why didn't they help THEIR country?

  Fuck off. We're full.

  America for Americans.

  • Exactly. By continually importing the best from elsewhere, we damage the world as a whole

  • amen.. street shitters need to be deported. All of them

  • We pay more.

    • To foreigners?

      Fuck that.

      America First means AMERICA...FIRST.

This is really the first time we’ve seen infighting on the forums and within MAGA more broadly. It’s fascinating! It’s pitting the real America First, anti-immigration part of the crowd against the business side. My impression from all my discussions is that the America First side is much, much larger among rank and file voters. It is also a substantial portion of the players in the transition team / coming administration.

And while I care about the MAGA movement much more than I care about Trump, we’re seeing a moment where he’s going to get pushed on this and he will, undoubtedly, try to come up with an answer that appeals to everyone. The business types, who have given him a lot of money, will want to continue hiring immigrants. Not just highly skilled tech workers, but immigrants of all skill levels in all kinds of jobs. The America First types still believe that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans (something that’s not true), and they want harsh immigration policies in place immediately, as Trump promised. What will Trump say to convince those people who want the MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW to believe he’s still doing it while also continuing to receive the money and power that comes from big business?

If I were running a MAGA-disrupting psyop, which I am not, I would absolutely be jumping on this as an issue to fracture the movement. It is the first thing I have seen in years that has the potential to break the unity that brought Trump back to the White House.

More as this drama continues. Until then, Happy Holidays!