The billionaire bro–far-right civil war is heating up.
Former presidential hopeful and “Department of Government Efficiency” co-head Vivek Ramaswamy is the latest in Donald Trump’s inner circle to weigh in on a brewing debate over American workers, triggering a MAGA meltdown in the process.
In response to a MAGA-world fight over Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk’s call for more skilled immigrant workers, Ramaswamy issued an indictment on American culture deeply rooted in 90s sitcom references.
“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over 'native' Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit … A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture,” Ramaswamy wrote in a Thursday post to X. “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” the billionaire added. “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.”
Ramaswamy concluded by supporting Musk’s position that skilled immigrant workers can’t simply be banned from entering the country, claiming America needed a cultural shift “rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence.”
The remark earned some ridicule – “Somebody got stuffed in a locker,” CNN panelist Scott Jennings jabbed – but sparked even more far-right fury.
“This is one of the most offensive things I’ve read. America and Americans are not mediocre," conservative pundit John Cardillo wrote in a post to X.
Others took issue with Ramaswamy’s position within the Trump administration, with the billionaire co-heading “DOGE,” the unofficial cost-cutting division announced by Trump last month.
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“No matter how you slice it, both Musk and Ramaswamy are saying native born Americans just aren’t good enough. That’s a lie and a deeply impropriate thing for any government official to say,” Fox News columnist David Marcus wrote in a Thursday post.
Also condemning the suggestion was fellow Indian-American former presidential hopeful Nikki Haley.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” Haley responded to Ramaswamy on X. “We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”
Ramaswamy wasn’t the only right-wing financier to attract outrage over calls to open up immigration. Musk’s suggestion that there was a shortage of skilled, American-born tech workers led one MAGA influencer to forecast a “divorce” between Musk and Trump’s base.
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