We also do have to bring in talent. When a country talented people you don't know, you don't. Donald Trump is once again facing the wrath of his own MAGA base for essentially claiming that American workers are not sufficiently talented. [00:00:17] And we're going to hear more from some of those outraged right right wingers soon. But first, jenk your $0.02. Here's what I love that finally, Trump's voters are beginning to see the Trump that we all know, which is an idiot who is part of the elites and the establishment and will [00:00:35] just say stupid stuff right off the top of his head before they never caught him. I'll tell you why they're catching him now. And even Laura Ingraham caught him, as you're about to see. Now, during this unusually contentious interview with Laura Ingraham, [00:00:51] Donald Trump bragged about how fabulously the economy is doing in his eyes, in large part thanks to his tariff policies. That's when Laura Ingraham brought up H1-b visas, which allow skilled foreign workers to come to the United States temporarily, and Trump completely stepped in it. [00:01:10] Take a look. I'm now at almost $18 trillion in nine months. That's the biggest in the history of the world. China has never done it. Never done anywhere near that. And all that money is coming in. It's investment. It's building auto plants. It's building AI plants. [00:01:27] By the way, we're leading China by a lot on AI. We have potentially the greatest economy already. It is, but we have. When these things open up, there's never going to be a country like what we have right now. And does that mean the Republicans have to talk about it? And does that mean the H-1b visa thing will not be a big priority [00:01:46] for the administration? Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign. Workers also do have to bring in talent. - When a country. - Talented. - People you don't know, you don't. - We don't have talented people here. No, you don't have you don't have certain talents. [00:02:03] And you have to people have to learn. You can't take people off of unemployment like an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory, we're going to make missiles, or I'm going to. How do we ever do it before? Now, the H-1b visa debate caused a stir early in Trump's term, when you had [00:02:22] his tech oligarch friends like Elon Musk arguing that there should be more H-1b visas, arguing in favor of them. But then his MAGA OGs like Steve Bannon arguing against them. By the way, Musk's Tesla allegedly laid off thousands of their skilled American [00:02:40] workers in 2024 and replaced them with cheaper foreign workers using H-1b visas. Trump tried to placate his MAGA base by signing an executive order that instituted a $100,000 fee for companies to obtain visas back in September. [00:02:58] But now he's thoroughly enraged them again by insulting American workers. Marjorie Taylor Greene took issue with his comments. Writing on X I believe in the American people. I'm one of you. I believe you are good, talented, creative, intelligent, hardworking [00:03:15] and want to achieve. I'm solidly against you being replaced by foreign labor like with H-1bs. I am solidly against allowing foreign students into our colleges and universities, like 600,000 Chinese students, just to financially prop them up. [00:03:32] If they fail, they fail. The system in place isn't helping our young people anyways. She's referring to another moment in the interview there, where Laura Ingraham challenged Trump's plan to bring thousands of Chinese students into the country. He defended the policy and said, don't forget, MAGA was my idea. [00:03:51] MAGA was nobody else's idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, but based on the responses from dozens of other MAGA figures, I'm not so sure that's true. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican politician from Florida, said, this is insane. [00:04:08] We are going to lose the midterms so badly. 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. Tim Pool, right wing podcaster, added don't worry, [00:04:25] Trump is bringing in more h-1bs to make sure our young people are blanked. Conservative activist Mike Cernovich said Trump broke everyone's heart with this line about the American workforce and h-1bs. [00:04:41] He also accused Trump of only listening to donors, which Candace Owens cosigned. And on his show today, Steve Bannon said the H-1b program is indentured servitude to compete against Americans and take jobs for lower wages as usual. [00:04:56] Now, the rest of Trump's cabinet is trying to do some damage control. Here's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, insisting that foreign workers are just a temporary fix. Take a look. I think the president's vision here is to bring in overseas workers [00:05:13] where these jobs went. Who have skills. Who have the skills three, five, seven years to train the U.S. Workers, then they can go home. The U.S. Workers fully take over. So do you. Do you have do you understand the concern that people have? Hey, an American could have that job. [00:05:30] - Why do you give it to an American? - Can't have that job. Because specific skills. Because we haven't built ships in the U.S. For years. We haven't built semiconductors. So this idea of overseas partners coming in, teaching American workers, then returning home, that's a home run. [00:05:49] - Jake, what do you make of this? - Yeah, it's so complicated. So Trump's reaction is not complicated. I'll come back to that. But the H-1b visa issue is complicated. Why? It definitely has a use. It definitely has a value. But has it been abused? Yes. [00:06:05] So is it only used for foreigners to come in and teach Americans the skill set and then leave? No way. They're totally making that up. That's actually a rare instance, right? Have I seen, And I'm not sure that it was in regards to H1-b visas, but, but a similar, topic where American, [00:06:24] a friend of mine, taught his replacements that were coming in from India how to do their jobs. And then those replacements took the jobs, and he didn't have a choice. They were going to be let go and their incentives, etc.. [00:06:40] Somebody was going to teach them anyway. My point is, it usually works in reverse. They don't usually have cheap labor, teach more expensive labor, they usually have expensive labor, teach cheaper labor, and then use cheaper labor for the rest of the time. Right? [00:06:56] So don't get tricked by Scott Bessent and his nonsense propaganda, or anything he ever says. Okay, so all right, now, but at the same time, there are some places where H1-b visas definitely make sense. I would not be in the camp of no, no, we got to ban these foreigners, [00:07:13] and there are no value to us at all. And we don't need any stinkin foreigners around here. No, there's plenty of jobs. Where? Yes, unfortunately, you that only people from other countries, because of how specific the job is or because of other factors, can can do those jobs. [00:07:32] And so I wouldn't want to foreclose that completely. On the other hand, have H1-b visas been abused to bring in less expensive labor? Yeah, of course they have. So if you wanted to reform it in a smart way, you bring people into the room, figure out, hey, how do we put guardrails around it, etc. [00:07:49] I think it makes sense if you want to get rid of it. I'm not in favor of that. Now, is Donald Trump talking about reform? Is he talking about crafting anything in an intelligent way? Of course not. Right. He comes in with a meat cleaver usually, but on this side he's saying, And his meat cleaver went into our backs. [00:08:07] So while you're defending H1-b visas, you don't have to say stupid crap like the American people are not talented enough. No, it's I mean, God, we have no one in government that ever represents us, right? Because if we had a government that cared about the average American, you would [00:08:25] then actually try to figure out, hey, how can we incentivize business individuals, etc., to be able to fill those jobs, those valuable jobs with American citizens? And then you would have an action plan for that, and then you would have a plan for. [00:08:40] Yes. But from time to time we have to use H1-b visas here. But they really should be of limited scale, and they should be for a specific purpose and then work together holistically to make that happen and to empower the American people who are plenty talented enough. We've got 330 million people in this country, and we built the most amazing [00:08:58] things in the history of the world. Are we talented enough? Of course. Of course we're talented enough. And so. But Trump, this is what we've been trying to tell the right wing all along. Jordan. He's the establishment. He's just a he's just in a different sheep's clothing. Right. Oh yeah I am a populist. [00:09:14] And then he loves being an elitist and building golden ballroom ballrooms and and et cetera. And everything he's ever done is supported his donors. Oh, I'm going to help Miriam Adelson with Israel. I'm going to help ExxonMobil with oil. [00:09:30] I'm going to help the defense contractors with a needless war in Venezuela. And now all of a sudden, companies, corporations, and were under corporate rule want more H1-b visas? And he's like, yeah, Americans aren't talented. I need to bring in the foreigners who are talented. What in the world happened to America first? [00:09:48] So no, this is I don't think either side is right. If they're going to black and white on this issue, which actually requires nuance. - What do you think, Jordan? - I, I am with you 100%. I think there's a middle ground here That is the best way forward. [00:10:05] Right. I think H-1bs bringing in people from around the world to share insight, experience, intelligence will lead to greater advancement. That's a great thing that should be celebrated. Like, you have people from all around the world who want to come here, [00:10:21] work at your companies, study at your universities, and share their findings. That's great. We should celebrate that. Where you lose me is when companies try to exploit that. By paying people lower wages, there should be a requirement, [00:10:37] a provision, legislation, something if you are paying somebody, if you are bringing in somebody on an H-1b visa to work, you have to pay them the exact same salary as their peer group at the company. And if you don't have a peer, a, a, a, another company, a rival [00:10:56] or the competitive market rate, the idea that you can bring people in and pay them less is bogus. I It doesn't fly with me so I sympathy. I'm sympathetic to the indentured servitude thing also because they're at risk of losing it if they try to fight back or ask for more. [00:11:14] It's a very vulnerable position for people with those visas, especially now. But across the board, we're seeing this isolationist, protectionist policy that I don't like. I don't want to live in that America. I want people from all over the world to come here to share their experiences, [00:11:31] their traditions, their knowledge, everything that makes America a unique place that should be celebrated. But unfortunately, there's a there's a part of the MAGA base and the broader right wing movement that only wants, you know, the white typical Christian American. [00:11:47] And that's it. Everybody else, get out. I don't like that. I mean, we live in Los Angeles. I what is so great about this city is how, you know, wildly different each neighborhood can be you get different cultures, languages, experiences. [00:12:03] I like that. And if they want this, you know, sterile, homogeneous community, you could find that in rural America. Fine. But don't try to define the rest of America, or don't try to make the rest of the country conform to what you want it to be. [00:12:19] If you don't like diversity, that's a you problem. Don't make it ours. So I'm with you. It is. There is a on H-1b specifically, there is a middle ground on these two competing arguments on the right. I think we should fight for it. And it is interesting to see the MAGA base fight back against Trump [00:12:37] and criticize him. Yeah. And I'll just remind people that and this cuts in both directions. Elon Musk came in on an H-1b visa. He had a student visa first and then converted it to an H-1b visa. Otherwise he couldn't have stayed. So, you know, you there's a lot of arguments to be made about Elon Musk, [00:12:55] but did he add to the US economy? Well, he certainly did. Right. And it has a lot of jobs have been created at Tesla. SpaceX. ET cetera. ET cetera. Yes, of course they have. So no matter what you think about Elon Musk politics, [00:13:12] and this was again, confusing because most of the writers on Elon Musk side. But they're also against H-1b visas. So just acknowledge the realities of what H-1b has brought us, both good and bad. And I feel like the two sides never acknowledge, [00:13:30] you know, the realities of the other side. Has it been abused? Definitely. Do we have enough people here that are super talented and we could direct in the, towards the future economy? Yes, definitely. But do we need folks from time to time on H-1b visas? [00:13:47] I think so. And so I think that that we could do that nuance and, and get it right, which is the balancing act that we always need. The extremes are usually not the right answer. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.