Weeks before Donald Trump begins his second term as president, a fracture has developed on social media to divide his coalition of supporters. The right-wing controversy came after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two top Trump supporters who are set to lead the incoming president’s Department of Government Efficiency, posted a series of tweets touting the benefits of immigrants in the tech sector. These messages have deeply offended members of the white MAGA base and led to name-calling and racism, as Democrats and Black Twitter say, “I told you so.”

Musk and Ramaswamy laud immigrants for high-tech jobs

Musk, who immigrated from South Africa, tweeted on Christmas Day that the U.S. needed to “double” the number of immigrants brought into the country through H-1B visas, which currently allow approximately 85,000 people with high skills or advanced education to immigrate to the country each year.

“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low,” Musk said.

On Thursday, Ramaswamy, a venture capitalist whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from India, mentioned the need for high-skilled immigrants in a lengthy post arguing that “our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” Drawing on 1990s pop culture references, Ramaswamy argued that “a culture that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers.”

Backlash and racism from conservatives

The posts drew significant backlash from prominent conservatives. Right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, who previously told Ramaswamy that she “would not have voted for you because you’re an Indian,” criticized his stance in a series of posts and retweets.

“American workers can leave a company. Imported H1B workers can’t. Tech wants indentured servants, not “high-skilled” workers,” she said in a post with 1 million views.

Controversial right-winger Laura Loomer, meanwhile, went after Musk, telling him that “you bought your way into MAGA 5 minutes ago” and accusing Musk of “invading Mar a Lago while trying to become Trump’s side piece” by influencing the incoming president to benefit his companies.

Loomer had earlier in the week tweeted that “our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third world invaders from India.”

She later claimed that Musk was retaliating against her on X, which Musk owns, by demonetizing her account and removing her subscribers; nevertheless, she and many others have continued to post racist attacks against Ramaswamy and Indian immigrants in general.

Black Twitter, MAGA opponents watch conservative implosion

Meanwhile, those watching from the sidelines, including many Democrats and Black Twitter, are enjoying the MAGA infighting. Some are looking at the irony of white Republicans being offended by the type of “culture” rhetoric they often use.

“Vivek and Elon briefly talking about white Americans the way white Americans talk about everyone else has the entire Republican coalition fractured and in disarray,” activist Samuel Sinyangwe tweeted.

Others are chiding immigrant supporters of Trump for thinking they would not become targets of racism as well.

The Republicans against Trump account posted, “The Trump coalition is crumbling before our eyes,” alongside two popcorn emoji.

Whether Trump’s coalition truly falls apart, this hostile back and forth is revealing some of the true motivations of members of the conservative movement and how they feel about people who are unlike them. It provides a massive “told you so” moment for those who tried to warn the country about this movement.

Elon MuskVivek Ramaswamy