WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has made hardline immigration policies a signature issue, but acknowledged on Wednesday that he’s been criticized for recently saying some skilled immigrants should be allowed into the country from his “Make America Great Again” supporters.
Trump told an audience of business executives that the U.S. needs immigrants who can train domestic workers in high-tech factories — and insisted that doing so is not inconsistent with his core political beliefs.
“I love my conservative friends. I love MAGA. But this is MAGA,” Trump said during an address to the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum, which he attended with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “Those people are going to teach our people how to make computer chips, and in a short period of time, our people are going to be doing great. And those people can go home.”
The comments drew applause in the room. But last week, Trump sparred with Fox News host Laura Ingraham over the same issue. Ingraham suggested during an interview with Trump that “you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of foreign workers,” only to have the president respond, “You also do have to bring in talent.”
When Ingraham said that the U.S. had “plenty of talented people here,” Trump said, “No, you don’t,” and added that “people have to learn.”
The exchange drew swift and sharp online criticism from some corners of the MAGA movement, who have opposed expanding H-1B visas, and other programs designed to let skilled immigrants into the country.
That didn’t stop Trump from doubling down on Wednesday, adding that his detractors are “really, really smart” despite their opposition to skilled immigration. “They’re unbelievable patriots,” Trump said. “But they just don’t understand our people need to be taught.”
Trump said that when it comes to “extremely complex” domestic plants making things like computers, cell phones and missiles, it wasn’t possible to “think you can hire people off an unemployment line to run it.”
Foreign owners building the plants in the U.S. are “going to have to bring thousands of people with them, and I’m going to welcome those people,” Trump said.
As evidence, the president pointed to the case of hundreds of South Korean nationals who were detained and left the U.S. following a September immigration raid at Hyundai’s electric vehicle manufacturing site in Georgia. Some have now returned and are back at their jobs.
Trump said the workers had been ordered to “get out,” but that “I said, ‘Stop it. Don’t be stupid.’”
