Fighting In The Big MAGA Tent

The debate over Indian immigration is necessary

The Christmas week wasn’t a time of peace for the MAGAsphere. Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and others initiated a battle over the matter of “high-skilled” immigration. Elon and his supporters argued America should expand legal immigration and make it easier, especially for Indian migrants and H-1B visa applicants. The majority of RW “influencers” opposed this position and stressed it’s necessary to restrict immigration to make America great again.

Everyone has an opinion on the fight. Some think it was an “op” or a diversion from Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration. Some think it was necessary to root out “bad” elements within the MAGA movement. Others claim it shows MAGA is completely compromised.

The correct take is that this debate is necessary and good. The MAGA movement, for better and for worse, is a big tent. There are going to be many different factions fighting for their viewpoints to prevail. It’s critical for nationalists to make their voices heard in order to prevent bad policies from taking over the agenda. The only way to ensure that happens is to be in the MAGA coalition. Leaving it relegates our views to the margins and allows the Tech Right’s immigration boosterism to triumph.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Elon and his cohorts love Indian Immigration and H-1Bs. The entire tech industry is addicted to these things. The hiring firms prefer this type of labor when staffing for the tech giants. Execs prefer these workers because they will do the job for less pay and longer hours than Americans. The industry now frequently discriminates against Americans because it doesn’t want to pay fair wages. Its business model is too dependent on cheap foreign workers.

Elon has previously said that he’s a big fan of legal immigration and wants to make it easier to come here. So has Vivek. This battle was inevitable once the conversation shifted from illegal immigration to legal immigration.

It’s certainly disappointing that Elon and Vivek–both of whom have endorsed the Great Replacement theory–would then back the Great Replacement so long as it’s LEGAL. But it’s not surprising; it’s in keeping with the assumed business interests of Big Tech to maintain this position.

The backlash should dispel any blackpilled feelings. Despite Elon controlling X and many influencers spending their days sucking up to him, the majority of MAGA figureheads came out strongly against his immigration stance. Laura Loomer, Ashley St. Clair, Gavin Wax, Matt Gaetz, Steve Bannon, and numerous others all took a strong stance against the idea that we need more Indians to make America great again. The MAGA base made its position loud and clear: it doesn’t simply want to halt illegal immigration, it also wants to cut down on legal immigration.

It’s a positive development that this viewpoint gets a hearing on the mainstream Right. In the pre-Trump era, this position was relegated to the margins. It was considered “hard-right” simply to be against illegal immigration. Many of the opponents of amnesty would stress that they love legal immigration and want more of it. There was no debate on the matter of legal immigration.

Now, we get a vigorous exchange on the matter–and the restrictionists can’t be ignored.

Trump’s statements don’t provide clarity, but he’s not president yet. It’s far too early to succumb to gloom and turn against the incoming president. That move would be in the interest of the Tech Right.

The MAGA coalition, like every political coalition, is a big tent with various competing interests and factions. Not everyone is going to agree on everything. That doesn’t mean we accept positions that are anathema to our core values. Instead, it requires nationalists to aggressively fight for our core beliefs within that big tent. This is how we set the MAGA agenda.

There’s a common temptation on the Dissident Right to turn against Trump and other political leaders over the slightest hint of betrayal. It’s assumed that we command a large, real-world constituency and we can convince it to be anti-Trump. This is misstaken. As the Alt Right and Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign demonstrated, there isn’t much of a constituency for anti-Trumpism from the Right. The Alt Right fell apart in embarrassing fashion after it turned on Trump, becoming irrelevant by the end of the first year of Trump’s presidency. It had no constituency outside of the internet. DeSantis banked his entire campaign on the GOP base being done with Trump. His humiliating defeat showed he made a huge error.

Right now, there is no real political alternative to Trump. He’s who the base wants. Deciding to be anti-Trump ensures that Trump and his allies can ignore you and alienates you from the base. Nationalist political views only receive a hearing if they come from Trump supporters. The president-elect doesn’t want to anger his own supporters and his inner circle will listen to what they demand. If it’s made clear that increasing H-1Bs and eliminating country caps on green cards will anger the base, Trump will be inclined to not do those things.

That’s how politics works.

In order to have influence over the next Trump administration, you have to be MAGA. If we want the next president to pursue strong immigration policies, we have to present our view as that of Trump supporters, not Trump haters. To strike out from the tent allows immigration enthusiasts to have the final word and will make the country worse.

I am confident that Trump will do many great things when it comes to immigration. It was the issue that won him the election. He has a mandate to get control over migration. It would be unpopular and idiotic to cast out this mandate and do the bidding of tech moguls.

The fight over H-1Bs reminds the country of the essential issue to Trump. Don’t assume it will be abandoned just over social media brouhaha.