President Donald J. Trump defended the H1-B skilled worker visa program by suggesting that America lacks “talented people” with certain skills, remarks that ignited a firestorm among his MAGA base.
In a Fox News interview that aired on Tuesday’s edition of “The Ingraham Angle,” the leader of the free world sat down with host Laura Ingraham at the White House for a wide-ranging conversation that covered a variety of topics, with one of them being the ongoing importation of foreign workers for jobs that can’t be offshored.
As the president was touting his success by bringing a flood of overseas investment into America compared to the dismal record of his predecessor, Joe Biden, especially when it comes to the AI race with China, Ingraham asked him about the foreign visas that have allowed companies to depress wages by importing cheaper foreign labor instead of hiring domestically.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“Does that mean the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration?” Ingraham asked. “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 responded, “Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent.”
“We have plenty of talented people here,” the host replied.
“No, you don’t,” Trump said. “No, you don’t.”
“We don’t have talented people here?” Ingraham asked.
“No… You don’t have certain talents, and you have to; people have to learn,” Trump explained. “You can’t take people off an unemployment, like an unemployment line and say, I’m going to put you into a factory where we’re going to make missiles.”
“How did we ever do it before?” Ingraham shot back. “When you and I were growing up.”
Trump then said an example would be the September ICE raid on a Hyundai megaplant in southeast Georgia, where federal immigration authorities swept up nearly 500 Korean nationals.
“In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants out — they had people from South Korea that made batteries all their life,” he said. “You know, making batteries is very complicated. It’s not an easy thing. Very dangerous, a lot of explosions, a lot of problems. They had like 500 or 600 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.”
Social media blew up after the president’s remarks, with some X users wondering what the hell they just heard and others predicting Republicans are going to get shellacked next November.
“Disaster. Absolute disaster,” wrote popular user Oilfield Rando.
Ingraham: “Well we have plenty of talented people here”
Trump: “No you don’t, no you don’t.”
Disaster. Absolute disaster. https://t.co/vpHnrPBzKA
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) November 12, 2025
“I’m sorry but what the f*** is this? American talent split the atom and went to the moon. American talent built everything the modern world takes for granted now. Give me a break. This is insanity,” said The Blaze’s Logan Hall.
“We have plenty of talented people here.”
“No you don’t.”
I’m sorry but what the f*** is this? American talent split the atom and went to the moon. American talent built everything the modern world takes for granted now. Give me a break. This is insanity. https://t.co/u1WtD1DrCn
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) November 12, 2025
“Invasion of the body snatchers,” wrote the National Pulse’s Raheem Kassam, referring to the science fiction movies depicting space aliens taking over human bodies.
Invasion of the body snatchers. https://t.co/KHAWBoTAnt
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) November 12, 2025
“This is insane—we are going to lose the mid-terms so badly,” warned Republican Lake County, Florida, Commissioner Anthony Sabatini. “We’ve never seen an administration crash & burn in its first year so badly—for no reason other than to appease donors & special interests… Trump has surrounded himself with the worst people.”
This is insane—we are going to lose the mid-terms so badly
We’ve never seen an administration crash & burn in its first year so badly—for no reason other than to appease donors & special interests
Trump has surrounded himself with the worst people https://t.co/4tgIpgX62t
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) November 12, 2025
More reactions.
Bad bad bad answer by Trump!
99% of the H1Bs aren’t making missiles or EV batteries.
They are replacing normal average American IT and accounting workers at 1/3 the wage.
That’s it. The H1B, whatever it’s original intent, is corrupted and HARMING American workers
— Bartemy Jones (@BartemyS) November 12, 2025
We need to hire our own smart people and develop their talent instead of taking a shortcut by hiring foreigners. H1b program means we will never have us citizen talent since our brightest are being passed by in favor of a quick fix.
— Trebor (@TreborJoss) November 12, 2025
Whoever is advising Trump like this needs to be fired immediately.
— Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminjlee) November 12, 2025
The H1-B program has been an ongoing matter of controversy that will only become more of an issue as the midterms approach, with affordability being a major concern with voters.
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