(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Failed presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy sparked online backlash Thursday when he criticized American culture in support of billionaire Elon Musk’s calls to import hundreds of thousands of foreign tech workers and engineers.
The online drama stems from Christmas Day, when Musk responded to news about the U.S. needing more than 160,000 engineers by 2032. Musk said the country needs many more engineers than that, and that the U.S. should import them from other countries.
No, we need more like double that number yesterday!
The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low.
Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 25, 2024
“No, we need more like double that number yesterday!” Musk said, before criticizing the U.S. labor pool and calling for more foreigners. “The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low.”
Musk then likened global economic competitions with sports. Ramaswamy, whose parents migrated here from India, made similar comments—but that’s not what sparked the backlash. Rather, it came the next day, when Ramaswamy criticized American culture.
America-First means we want America to WIN. Playing for second place doesn’t cut it. https://t.co/ZsdMx4aRux
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 25, 2024
“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 lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH: Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer),” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy, a former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive, then listed what he perceives to be problems with American culture, from watching television instead of studying math, to being overly interested in sports.
He then called for a cultural shift, saying that it can be our “Sputnik moment”—when Russia shocked the U.S. by becoming the first country to successfully launch a satellite into space.
Ramaswamy’s message wasn’t received very well among right-wingers.
Turns out the "waste" that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans
— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) December 26, 2024
While some libertarians and conservatives noted that Ramaswamy was making some technically correct points, nationalists focused on the fact that his message was in service of Musk’s pro-immigration stance.
“Turns out the ‘waste’ that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans,” said Blaze Media’s Auron Macintyre.
Trump, who in June said he supports giving green cards to foreigners who graduate from U.S. universities, is reportedly on Musk’s side of the issue, too.
“He’s not a restrictionist,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the New York Times last week. “He’s just a regular Republican who believes in ‘legal good, illegal bad.’”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
