Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the heads of President-elect Donald Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency,” are at odds with some of Trump’s far-right supporters over their support for H-1B visas. that enable foreign skilled workers to work in America.

The debate was sparked over the holiday season when Laura Loomer, a conservative social media personality who was criticized while traveling with Trump on some campaign stops, criticized Trump’s appointment of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence criticized.

Loomer criticized a post by Krishnan advocating lifting country caps on green cards, calling the designation “deeply troubling,” sparking an online battle between business leaders who say work visas are essential to employing highly skilled foreign workers and Trump led advocates arguing it was a way for business leaders to get cheap labor rather than provide job opportunities for Americans.

Both Ramaswamy and Musk have claimed in numerous posts on X that H-1B visas are essential to American culture not Prioritize success in scientific and technical careers compared to other countries.

“Our American culture values ​​mediocrity over excellence Away too long (at least since the 90s and probably longer). The not Start college starts YOUNG”, Ramaswamy posted on X.

“A “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympian or the athlete over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers,” he added.

Musk, who has said he once worked in the United States on an H-1B visa, that he relies on those work visas to operate his technology companies, and that they are in demand because of the number of skilled workers needed to handle the rise of new technologies essential importance.

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans.” And We do it because it’s MUCH easier than going through this incredibly painful and slow work visa process,” he posted. “However, there is a severe shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Loomer and other far-right conservatives have also argued that expanding such programs would run counter to Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

While they and others accused Musk and Ramaswamy of obstructing Trump’s aggressive immigration proposals, the business leaders argued that such reforms would not hamper the program’s comprehensive review process.

“Perhaps this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to the fact that immigration of the top ~0.1% of engineering talent via legal immigration is critical to America’s continued success,” Musk wrote on X.

“It’s like using the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your entire team (which is mostly American!) win the NBA,” he said, referring to two foreign-born basketball stars.

Now business leaders are accused of using Trump for their personal gain.

“We are replacing a third party World A third of the migrant invasion World Tech invasion. “Same shit,” Loomer posted on X. “Except that invasion habit perpetrated by raping foreigners who look and smell like trash. That’s what career left-wing tech billionaires who deep down hate Trump will do.”

Further evidence of the divide between conservatives on this issue, former Republican presidential Contestant Nikki Haley also weighed in, declining a post from Ramaswamy and argue American workers should have priority about foreigners.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she said. “You just have to look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should invest in and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.”

In June, David Sacks will be the president-elect AI and crypto czar, interviewed Trump for his “All In” podcast and asked Trump if he would expand H-1B work Visas for technicians after determining the limit – to which Trump said “Yes.”

In the same episode, Trump too promised to award green cards to all international graduates, say, “I want to do and what I will do, Is If you have a college degree, I think you should automatically get a green card as part of your diploma to stay in this country. These include junior colleges, to.”

His election campaign later went back to this promise, proverb There would be a review process.

“He believes only after verification Location, “We should retain the most qualified graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News at the time. “The would apply only to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates, who would never undercut American wages or workers.

ABC News’ Zohren Shah contributed to this report.