Ramaswamy steps in as Sriram faces backlash for controversial immigration views
Last week, the president-elect tapped Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. As he continues to draw heat for his views on immigration, Ramaswamy, who will lead the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk, shared his opinion on why most tech hires are “foreign-born.” He asserted that it is not “because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation).”
But, because it all “comes down to the c-word: culture.” “Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH,” he continued. Ramaswamy went on to say that the American culture has “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” He pointed out that American films and television shows celebrate “prom queen over the math Olympiad champ,” which “will not produce the best engineers.”
The Ohio Republican bluntly added, “‘Normalcy’ doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our a**es handed to us by China.” “Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness,” Ramaswamy added.
Here’s why Sriram Krishnan is facing backlash online:
Krishnan came under fire after Laura Loomer shared his tweet about removing the country caps on green cards. “Anything to remove country caps for green cards/unlock skilled immigration would be huge,” the entrepreneur tweeted. The investigative journalist expressed fears about his views, claiming they went against Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.
In response to Loomer’s concerns, Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks said, “Point of clarification: Sriram didn’t say he wants to remove all caps on green cards. He said he wants to remove country caps on green cards.” “In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based. Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!”
Trump previously confirmed that Sacks and Krishnan would work together as a team, which would ensure a “continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.”
