President Donald Trump is sticking firmly to his long running tough stance on immigration, but he admitted this week that some of his strongest “Make America Great Again” supporters have hit him with criticism after he said the country needs more skilled immigrants. Speaking to a room full of business leaders on Wednesday, he argued that bringing in specialized workers is essential if the U.S. wants to compete in high tech manufacturing.
Trump told the audience at the U.S. Saudi Investment Forum, where he appeared alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that America needs workers who can train people in advanced industries like computer chip production.
He pushed back on the idea that this goes against his usual immigration message, telling the crowd, “I love my conservative friends. I love MAGA. But this is MAGA. Those people are going to teach our people how to make computer chips, and in a short period of time, our people are going to be doing great. And those people can go home.”
His comments got applause in the room, but the reaction has not been as warm among parts of his base. Last week, he clashed with Fox News host Laura Ingraham when she questioned whether bringing in large numbers of foreign skilled workers aligned with his message.
Ingraham told Trump, “you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of foreign workers,” prompting Trump to reply, “You also do have to bring in talent.” When she said the U.S. already had “plenty of talented people here,” he pushed back again, saying, “No, you don’t,” adding that “people have to learn.”
That exchange kicked off a wave of online backlash from some MAGA activists who have long opposed expanding H 1B visas or other pathways for skilled immigration. Many argued that Trump was abandoning a key part of his platform by opening the door to more foreign workers.
Despite that response, Trump didn’t hesitate to double down on Wednesday. He told the audience that his critics are “really, really smart” and “unbelievable patriots” but insisted they were wrong on this issue. “They just don’t understand our people need to be taught,” he said.
Trump went on to argue that the kind of advanced plants being built across the country, from technology to defense manufacturing, are too complex to staff with workers who can be trained overnight. “Extremely complex” facilities producing computers, cell phones and missiles can’t be run, he said, by “people off an unemployment line.” Instead, he said foreign companies building those factories in the U.S. “are going to have to bring thousands of people with them, and I’m going to welcome those people.”
To drive home his point, he referenced the case of hundreds of South Korean workers who were detained during an immigration raid last year at Hyundai’s electric vehicle factory in Georgia. Many were forced to leave the U.S. but have since returned to their jobs. Trump told the crowd the workers had initially been told to “get out,” but that he stepped in and said, “Stop it. Don’t be stupid.”
Trump’s insistence that skilled immigration is necessary puts him at odds with a part of his base, but he made it clear he believes the country can’t move forward in high tech manufacturing without outside expertise.