Ramaswamy out at DOGE after H1-B rant

Posted on Jan 23, 2025

Looks like Vivek Ramaswamy can begin his run for Ohio governor even sooner… he’s now out at DOGE, after Elon Musk apparently decided he had become a liability after his post-Christmas H1-B visa rant.

Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days, according to three people familiar with Musk’s preferences who, like others for this article, were granted anonymity to discuss them. An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.

[…]

In late December, Ramaswamy criticized American culture, saying that tech companies hire foreign workers in part because of a mindset in the country that has “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

“They wanted him out before the tweet — but kicked him to the curb when that came out,” said one of the three people familiar with his departure.

For our money, Ramaswamy made some very strong points in that rant, even if he did the typical Vivek thing of coming off as a smug, smarty-pants, abrasive know-it-all.

However, Trump and the MAGA base really dislike immigration of all types. (Trump doesn’t much like smug, smarty-pants, abrasive know-it-alls, either, for what that’s worth).

They genuinely believe that immigration of all sorts displaces American workers and drives wages down. This is despite the fact that even the most immigration-skeptical economist cited by anti-immigration groups, George Borjas, has been unable to truly substantiate that. Other, more neutral, economists find zero evidence of this supposed displacement and adverse wages impact– and libertarian economists, in particular, take the view that immigration generally raises the socio-economic standards of native-born Americans, not the reverse.

Given Vivek’s more libertarian views on these matters, he probably shouldn’t have embedded himself in the Trump coalition to start with. Frankly, we suspect Musk may wind up in a similar place– he too is an immigrant and has been very defensive of high-skilled immigration.

What’s most amusing about this is that the person who curb-stomped Ramaswamy the hardest after his comments was none other than Trump’s only vaguely plausible 2024 GOP primary rival, Nikki Haley— who just so happens to revile Ramaswamy after his somewhat myopic and weird focus on her in the 2024 GOP primary debates.

So… 1-0 to Haley, we suppose.