Topline
President Donald Trump said the H-1B visas were necessary to bring in talented workers to the country, adding that the U.S. lacked certain talents, in a confrontational exchange during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, which comes two months after he signed an executive order that hiked the fees on the skilled worker visas to $100,000.
Key Facts
In a clip of the interview that aired on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” Trump claimed the U.S. was leading China on AI “by a lot,” said the U.S. has “the greatest economy,” and added “there is never going to be a country like what we have right now.”
Ingraham then asked if this meant “the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration, because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.”
Trump said: “Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent when a country.”
When Ingraham said, “we have plenty of talented people here,” the president responded, “No, you don’t.”
When asked to clarify this comment, Trump said, “No, you don’t have certain talents and people have to learn,” and added an example that Americans could not be taken “off an unemployment line” and be put into a factory “where we’re going to make missiles.”
What Trump Said About The Ice Raid South Korean Workers?
Trump then brought up the immigration raid on a Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia in September, which resulted in the detention of around 300 South Korean workers. Trump, who previously defended the raid, offered that incident as an example, telling Ingraham: “They raided because they wanted illegal immigrants out. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous.” The president said the South Korean company had “like five or six hundred people, early stages, to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You’re going to need that, Laura.”
