Donald Trump has stirred discontent among his staunch supporters by asserting that the United States requires foreign workers due to a shortage of skilled individuals within its own labor force.

The former president made this contentious statement during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night. The discussion focused on his administration’s stance on H-1B visas, which facilitate the employment of highly-skilled international professionals in the U.S.

In September, Trump enacted an executive order imposing a $100,000 one-time fee on these work visas. However, during the interview with Ingraham, he seemed reluctant to entertain further restrictions on the program.

Ingraham, a conservative commentator and Trump supporter, challenged him on this matter, questioning whether the H-1B visa issue would be deprioritized. She argued, “If you aim to increase wages for American workers, you cannot inundate the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.”

Trump retorted, “I agree, but you also need to bring in talent.”

Ingraham countered, asserting, “Well, we have plenty of talented people here.”

‘No you don’t, no you don’t,’ Trump said.

Ingraham again asked: ‘We don’t have plenty of talented people here?’

‘No, you don’t have certain talents and people have to learn,’ Trump explained. 

‘You can’t take people off the unemployment line and say, ”I’m gonna’ put you in a factory, go make missiles.”

The US currently awards 85,000 H-1B visas annually on a lottery system, with India understood to account for around three-quarters of these recipients.

Data obtained by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicated that applications for the immigration visa for the upcoming fiscal year fell to around 359,000, the lowest figure in four years.

Ingraham continued to squeeze Trump: ‘How did we ever do it before, when you and I were growing up?’

Trump went on to reference a September incident where almost 500 South Korean nationals were arrested in the largest Homeland Security raid in US history as agents descended on a Hyundai factory in Georgia.  

‘Let me give you an example in Georgia. They raided because they wanted illegal immigrants out. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives,’ he said. 

Trump effectively said that the raid was a mistake.  

‘You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like five or six hundred people, early stages, to make batteries and to teach people how to I do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the kind you’re going to need that, Laura.’

Trump admitted that he and Ingraham disagree on the issue but said he couldn’t expect foreign countries to invest billions in America to take people ‘off the unemployment line’ to do jobs they weren’t trained for. 

Many conservatives were irate with Trump and took Ingraham’s side in the discussion. 

‘This is insane – we are going to lose the mid-terms so badly,’ wrote Anthony Sabatini.

‘We’ve never seen an administration crash and burn in its first year so badly – for no reason other than to appease donors and special interests. Trump has surrounded himself with the worst people.’

Another wrote: ‘Well, so much for America first. I’m never voting Republican again, screw them. I’m done. There are plenty of talented Americans.’

‘Absolute disgrace of a president, at this point there is literally no difference between Trump and Biden,’ said another. 

Some pointed out that Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy had gone to war with MAGA over this very issue earlier this year, with Ramaswamy largely exiled from the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency following the debate. 

Ramaswamy, who was initially named co-chief of DOGE, ignited the controversy with a provocative post on X. 

In his message, he voiced strong support for bringing ‘highly skilled’ foreign workers to the U.S., even as MAGA voters and Trump himself have championed stricter immigration policies. 

‘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),’ Ramaswamy wrote. 

‘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.’

In September, Washington imposed a $100,000-a-year fee to H-1B visas for skilled workers.

H-1B visas, which require at least a bachelor’s degree to obtain, are designed for high-skilled jobs which companies are struggling to fill.

While critics have argued that the visa is damaging to the American workforce, its supporters, including Elon Musk, have claimed that it is vital for attracting high-skilled global talent.

Trump’s new order will only be applicable for new visa requests, with the annual payment for each applicant required by companies for up to six years. 

A separate order signed by the president saw the introduction of a new ‘gold card’ designed to help fast-track certain visas for those willing to ‘make a significant financial gift’.

Up to 80,000 ‘highly valuable’ gold cards are set to be readily available, with the program currently in its ‘implementation phase’, according to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. 

At present, H-1B visas come with a number of administrative fees that come to an estimated total of $1,500. Lutnick insisted that he had ‘spoken’ with all of the big companies and that they ‘are on board’ with the new mandatory payment. 

Explaining the new policy, Trump said: ‘The main thing is, we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying.’

Microsoft applied for as many as 6,000 specialized migrant worker visas leading up to a decision to terminate 9,000 jobs globally, according to new reports.

The global tech giant revealed this week it would cut around 4 percent of its global workforce as it ramps up investments in artificial intelligence.

The move has seen loyal, long term American employees lose their livelihoods and sparked unrest at a time when President Donald Trump is trying to ramp up local production and employment. 

The H1-B visa is for skilled foreign workers, and allows companies to sponsor an individual to move to the US for work.

But the visa is often tied to a specific role at a specific company, meaning an employee’s right to live in the United States is tied to their employment and, theoretically, making it less likely that they will quit their jobs.

Once their role is terminated, they often have to leave the United States.

Microsoft has market capitalization of over $3 trillion – the biggest in the world – but it is looking to rein in costs as it funnels billions into its ambitious bet on artificial intelligence.

But its use of expert foreign labor is among the highest in the United States, ranking seventh out of the top 10 US corporations.

Amazon ranks first, with 9,200 applications in 2024. 

The most recent figures showed the US unemployment rate at 4.3 percent in August, up a tick from 4.2 percent in August 2024. 

Ingraham’s chat with the president, split over two nights of her show, brought some surprisingly contentious moments.

In a moment echoing the visa confrontation, Trump also clashed with Ingraham over his administration’s continued allowance of foreign students in the country, with the Ingraham Angle host asking him how allowing 600,000 Chinese students into the U.S. was a ‘pro-MAGA position.’ 

‘You don’t want to cut half the people, half the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t want to do that.’ 

He then added, ‘MAGA was my idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.’

Trump also pushed back on Ingraham’s assertion that hosting Chinese students at U.S. universities was particularly problematic. 

The Fox host noted how they ‘spy on us, they steal our intellectual property,’ adding that they’re ‘not the French.’ 

‘You think the French are better?’ Trump asked about America’s first ally. ‘Really? I’ll tell you, I’m not so sure. We’ve had a lot of problems with the French, where we get taxed very unfairly on our technology.’ 

Trump defended China a second time when Ingraham brought up that a Chinese diplomat said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi should be beheaded over comments she made about Japan potentially defending Taiwan.

‘Well, a lot of our allies aren’t our friends either,’ Trump said. ‘A lot of our allies took advantage of us on trade more than China did.’ 

In a friendlier moment during the second-part of Ingraham’s two-night conversation with the president, Trump gave Ingraham tours of both the revamped, gold-friendly Oval Office and the Presidential Walk of Fame. 

He also confirmed that he has ‘an obligation’ to and will sue the BBC for $1billion over the public broadcaster’s doctoring of his speech on January 6. 

Trump also admitted that he has work to do on the price of beef and coffee, saying the latter could be handled by a lowering of his signature tariff program. 

The president did criticize his fellow Republicans for doing a poor job of selling his affordability agenda. 

‘The Republicans don’t talk about it. Republicans have to talk about the fact that prices are down,’ he said.  

Trump was asked which Democrats the Republicans should be worried about in 2028 after having said the previous night that there were some good Democrats. 

‘Well, I wouldn’t want to say, because that gives that person an immediate boost,’ he claimed, before bragging about his economy.

‘The economy is my thing and we have the greatest economy in history.’