Nikki Haley, the former United Nations Ambassador, condemned her former GOP presidential primary opponent Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday for contending that American culture is responsible for the scarcity of U.S.-born engineers.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.” Haley wrote in a new post the X platform.
There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers. https://t.co/fIGr45C3LD
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 26, 2024
Ramaswamy, who is scheduled to serve as the co-chair of the “Department of Government Efficiency” with Elon Musk, proposed on Thursday that Silicon Valley recruits additional foreign-born engineers due to the American culture’s preference for mediocrity over distinction.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he contended.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
Haley and Ramaswamy’s exchange of barbs is redolent of the ones they exchanged during their campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination last year.
Haley referred to the tech entrepreneur as “scum” after he raised her daughter during the third GOP primary debate last November.
Ramaswamy, on the other hand, referred to the former U.N. ambassador as a “fascist” during the fourth debate, which took place just weeks later.
Silicon Valley conservatives, who have been increasingly engaged in President-elect Trump’s prospective administration, are currently at odds with their fellow Republicans regarding certain immigration policies.
This is the most recent dispute between the two.
Musk and Ramaswamy, among other tech executives, have argued that the industry is dependent on the immigration of highly skilled individuals, despite their support for Trump’s proposals for mass deportations.
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