Trump Seems To Think America Lacks Talent During Interview With Laura Ingraham About Foreign Workers

President Donald Trump clashed with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on whether bringing in foreign workers is beneficial to Americans in a segment released on Tuesday.

Ingraham stated that Trump’s administration cannot raise wages for American workers if hundreds of thousands of foreigners are entering the American workforce, which prompted pushback from Trump, who argued that the U.S. needs to bring in talent. While Ingraham challenged Trump on whether the U.S. has the talent necessary for the workforce, the president claimed that the U.S. lacks certain talent and must find it overseas.

“Does that mean that the H-1B visa thing will not be a big priority for your administration, because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can’t flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers,” Ingraham said.

“Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent,” Trump answered.

“Well, we have plenty of talented people here,” Ingraham said, which Trump denied.

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Trump stated that many foreigners are more experienced in certain skills, such as battery making, and that the U.S. needs the best talent. The president slapped a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applicants in September as some administration officials argued that it displaced the average American worker for cheaper wages.

Indian politicians, whose country benefits the most from the H-1B program, were outraged over the move and claimed that their workers will suffer as a result.

From 2022 to December 2024, Amazon, Google and Microsoft laid off at least 27,000, 12,000 and 16,000 employees. In that same three-year period, the companies have secured at least 61,000 H-1B visas combined for foreign national workers, according to USCIS.