Despite New York Post Phone Call, Question and Answer, Donald Trump Companies Do Not Use H1B Visas

When I read the New York Post article proclaiming that President Trump supports the fraudulent system known as H1B visa hiring, I knew something was amiss because we previously looked at Trump’s various business hires and use of the visa process.

Apparently, the NY Post called President Trump to get him to weigh in on the controversial subject that has been triggered by Elon Musk saying he would “go to war on this issue” to maintain the H1B visa system -and subsequent foreign employment for tech skilled workers- his various companies depend upon.

(NY POST) President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue.

“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past. (more)

However, if you go to the Dept of Labor website, search or download the database of H1B employment, specifically filtering to Trump’s various companies, what you will discover is that Trump Inc doesn’t use the H1B visa system at all. [Check for Yourself Here]

How does this reconcile? Well, having previously looked at the visa use by President Trump in his various companies {SEE HERE}, I can confidently assert (Occam’s Razor) that within the interview President Trump conflated H2B temporary worker visas, which he does use in his service industry, with H1B visas which he does not use.

The H-1B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations of distinguished merit and ability. At least that was the intent of the program before it was abused by companies who saw the opportunity to avoid domestic market wages and find alternative cheap sources of skilled labor in the tech sector. That abusive ‘labor diversion’ process has now expanded to find H1B claims in other sectors. So much so, there are now a myriad of companies requesting H1B status employees for their various interests.

The H2B program applies to employers seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens as “temporary workers” mostly in the service industry where extreme seasonal fluctuations in business make it challenging to hire from a very limited market base. H2B workers are found in hotels, resorts, restaurants and service companies anywhere you find big seasonal shifts in service businesses, like Trump resorts.

As previously noted, Does the word “Snowbird” ring a bell? Florida has a “tourist season” which runs from (generally speaking) just after Thanksgiving to Easter annually. January, February and March are the peak. The first Monday in February is the absolute peak as almost every time-share and hotel unit flips that week.

The volume of work within the service and hospitality industry doubles during the tourist season, and those businesses who hire within the general labor market struggle to increase their labor in relationship to the increase in business. In addition, local workers looking for employment are reluctant to take temporary or “seasonal” jobs, and prefer longer term -more stable- employment.

Many businesses need to double, or in some cases triple, their workforce in order to meet the business demand. As a consequence, many companies, including Trump owned resorts, have used H-2B visa workers to fill the gap between large fluctuations in business and the needed staffing shortfalls. From my own experience, many of the workers are students from South America (Argentina, Brazil, etc) who take the seasonal jobs Nov/Dec – March/April between their college seasons – and then return home.

Bottom line – President Trump is referencing H2B visas which he does use, and not H1B visas which he does not use. Whether President Trump conflated the issue, or whether the Murdoch owned New York Post intentionally constructed their questioning to create a clickbait controversy, is entirely up to the reader to determine. I think it’s likely a combination.

♦ All of that said, the issue of H1B replacement workers displacing American workers is not going away regardless of how uncomfortable it makes the Silicon Valley crowd. Many highly skilled Americans have been impacted by the issue of H1B replacement, and the inherent fraud within the special interest employment system is a critical issue for a large percentage of the MAGA base.

In fact, for context you might remember the 2017 Trump suspension of visas from Muslim countries. In response to that suspension, the state of Washington filed a lawsuit against President Trump seeking an injunction to continue the visas. The main subject of their opposition was the financial impact to Microsoft and the H1B visa use.

BYRON YORK, 2017 – “Why is Washington State mounting such a vigorous challenge to President Trump’s executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terrorism-plagued countries? Of course there are several lawsuits against the president, and there are lots of motives among the various litigants. But Washington State’s is the suit that stopped the order, at least temporarily. And a look at the state’s case suggests that, behind high-minded rhetoric about religious liberty and constitutional protections, there is a lot of money at stake.

Judging by the briefs filed by Washington State, as well as statements made by its representatives, some of the state’s top priorities in challenging Trump are: 1) To ensure an uninterrupted supply of relatively low-wage H-1B foreign workers for Microsoft and other state businesses; 2) To ensure a continuing flow of high-tuition-paying foreign student visa holders; and 3) To preserve the flow of tax revenues that results from those and other sources.

[…] Washington State argued that its residents have suffered from the Trump order, or might suffer in the future, because some of the state’s biggest businesses rely on H-1B visas, which are often used to bring foreign workers to U.S. companies at lower wages than their American counterparts.

“The technology industry relies heavily on the H-1B visa program,” the Washington State lawsuit said. “Microsoft, a corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, is the state’s top employer of high-tech — or H-1B visa holders and employs nearly 5,000 people through the program. Other Washington-based companies, including Amazon, Expedia, and Starbucks, employ thousands of H-1B visa holders.” (link)

When a system has been so thoroughly corrupted as to now create harm, there should not be a great deal of controversy in suspending that system until the market can correct itself. However, losing control of the H1B visa system is viewed by the Silicon Valley tech group as a non-starter position.

♦ It will be interesting to watch how Silicon Valley’s ally, JD Vance – a political entity wrapped in the cover of Hillbilly values, reacts to this H1B visa and immigration debate.

As we watch the arguments inside the H1B debate, it is worth remembering the group who promoted, pushed and ultimately influenced the JD Vance nomination consisted of: Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Bill Ackman, David Sacks, Chamath Palihapitiya, Jacob Helberg and of course, Vivek Ramaswamy. On the inside of the Trump orbit, the network had Donald Trump Jr also promoting JD Vance.

JD Vance was then invited to be an attendee at the June 6th San Francisco fundraiser for President Trump, hosted by Sacks and Palihapitiya, and that’s likely when the first one-on-one running mate discussion between President Trump and Senator Vance took place.

Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, quit her job as a corporate litigator at DNC-affiliated Munger, Tolles & Olson, within minutes of hearing that JD had been selected as President Trump’s Vice-President nominee and running mate. Usha Chilukuri-Vance worked in Washington DC for the firm.

The American workers who Silicon Valley advocate for replacing with foreign workers, are the proverbial “Saxons, with nothing to lose.”

The Big Tech group may not have initiated the background; in fact, the offshoring and replacement cycle was started many years before. However, when you strip a group of Americans of their value, label them, ostracize them, ridicule them, belittle them and then denigrate them for failing to support your abuse, think “rust belt”, you create a group of Americans with nothing left to lose.

Calling people “racist” and “nativist” who voted for President Trump specifically on this issue is not going to work. Musk et al should be very aware that this H1B debate is targeting the “nothing left to lose” American team.

If they think their immigration position is both zero-sum and survivable, think again. There is much for them to lose. The true zero-sum position is already held by a much bigger tribe of American workers who truly do have nothing left to lose.

Silicon Valley ends up fighting an army that will never concede because they have already been stripped of everything they hold dear.

Beware the wrath of the angry Saxon. This immigration topic is Musk, Ramaswamy and Sacks’ first trip into what they call ‘flyover country.’ They are experiencing strong MAGA pushback, something very new and uncomfortable for them, likely for the first time; hence, their emotional reactions.

We understand the UniParty is smiling as they see us debating this issue; however, if Making America Great Again doesn’t benefit working Americans, then what exactly is the point.

Vivek Ramaswamy, David Sacks, Elon Musk (with his influencers) and the tribe in/around Silicon Valley, have placed their flag of influence on this H1B hill. They are willing to do whatever it takes to retain this system

This is false - both Musk and Ramaswamy have stated that the rules for H1B should be tightened so the financial incentive for companies to hire H1B visa holders instead of Americans is removed. Simply impose a high fee for each H1B visa on the company sponsoring the temporary worker so that it's cheaper to hire someone already authorized to work in the US - only the truly exceptional and unique foreign workers with unique skill sets would ever be sponsored by US companies, restoring the H1B program to its intended purpose and guaranteeing that US workers would not be undercut by H1B visa holders.

thenationalpulse.com

snip

While bringing allegedly top talent from around the world to the United States sounds good on its face, this isn’t actually what H1B visas do.

The O-1 visa is actually the program used to grant legal work status to a foreign nation in the United States that is considered a ‘once-in-a-generation’ intellectual talent in a critical industrial sector.

H1B visas apply more to workers with skills that native-born Americans can easily learn through technical training programs or even collegiate classes. Think more programmer or mid-level software engineer than someone trained in semiconductor fabrication.

Even more concerning is that the big tech companies routinely abuse H1B visas as part of a scheme to suppress the wages of both American and foreign workers while maximizing shareholder profits.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice ramped up enforcement of visa rules after a pattern emerged in which tech companies artificially create the appearance of a domestic work shortage to increase their H1B allotments. This ultimately resulted in native-born workers being laid off and replaced two or threefold by cheaper foreign H1B workers.H1Bs benefit tech companies on two key fronts:

First, on average, H1B workers are paid significantly less than their American-born counterparts. This effectively puts downward pressure on wages across the industry, meaning American workers also get paid less;

Secondly, because the visa is attached to the sponsor company, the foreign worker lacks the leverage afforded to American-born workers who can demand higher salaries by simply looking to take a job with a different firm.

…AND A COMPLETE SCAM.

Little data actually supports the tech industry’s claims of a worker shortage and a need to end H1B country caps. The data does suggest, however, that big tech is replacing qualified and capable American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

Between 2022 and 2024, Amazon laid off nearly 30,000 high-skilled workers. In the same period—though in compliance with federal law regarding when companies can request H1B visa workers—the online retail giant expanded its workforce by nearly 100,000 foreign workers.

snip

Political talker Dick Morris told Newsmax Saturday, “The H-1B program has been rife with corruption ever since it started under Clinton. Alejandro Mayorkas, then head of the Clinton immigration service, was literally working with Hillary’s brother to get H-1B visas issued for a Chinese company that was producing weapons of mass destruction.”

yahoo.com——While Republican lawmakers on key committees now express some openness to reform, they’re wary of moving too fast and getting crosswise with a GOP base eager for a border crackdown.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, w/ jurisdiction over immigration policy, said winning the AI race “includes Americans who went to school and got the same degree” as STEM immigrants.

But Jordan, a longtime admirer of Musk, said he’s happy to work with the tech billionaire on the issue — after the border is locked down.

“President Trump and Mr. Musk, if they’re open to other things, we’ll look at those,” Jordan told reporters. “But we got to secure the border first. That’s where the country’s at. The sequence matters a lot.”

This is false - both Musk and Ramaswamy have stated that the rules for H1B should be tightened so the financial incentive for companies to hire H1B visa holders instead of Americans is removed. Simply impose a high fee for each H1B visa on the company sponsoring the temporary worker so that it's cheaper to hire someone already authorized to work in the US - only the truly exceptional and unique foreign workers with unique skill sets would ever be sponsored by US companies, restoring the H1B program to its intended purpose and guaranteeing that US workers would not be undercut by H1B visa holders.

And you are correct!

Sundance doesn't usually make these kind of mistakes.

Sundance's article is flawed and should be retracted. His database search was incorrect and is based on a private data aggregation site.

I did my own search from a government source and found several Trump organizations that have requested H-1B visas in the past.

Site: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub

The database only goes back to year 2009. Here is what my search returned:

Fiscal Year	Employer Name	Industry Code	City/State	Initial Approved	Initial Denial	Continuing Approved
2023	TRUMP MEDIA TECHNOLOGY GROUP CORP	54 - Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services	Atlanta GA	1	0
2020	TRUMP INTERNATIONAL REALTY	53 - Real Estate and Rental and Leasing	New York NY	0	0	1
2013	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC		New York NY	0	0	4
2013	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC	71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	New York NY	0	0	1
2012	TRUMP INTL HOTEL & TOWER	72 - Accommodation and Food Services	Chicago IL	0	0	1
2012	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC		New York NY	6	0	0
2011	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC		New York NY	2	0	0
2011	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC	71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	New York NY	10	0	1
2010	TRUMP INTERNATIONAL BEACH RESORT	72 - Accommodation and Food Services	Sunny Isles Beach FL	0	0	1
2010	TRUMP INTL HOTEL & TOWER	72 - Accommodation and Food Services	Chicago IL	2	1	1
2010	TRUMP INTL HOTEL AND TOWER CONDO	53 - Real Estate and Rental and Leasing	New York NY	0	0	2
2010	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC	71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	New York NY	2	0	1
2010	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC	71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	New York NY	0	0	1
2009	TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL & TOWER	72 - Accommodation and Food Services	Chicago IL	2	0	0
2009	TRUMP INTL HOTEL & TOWER	72 - Accommodation and Food Services	Chicago IL	1	0	0
2009	TRUMP MODEL MANAGEMENT LLC	71 - Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	New York NY	1	0	0

-PJ

First, this debate over immigration is taking place INSIDE the MAGA world. That is something you will NOT see inside the DNC.

The DNC does not have debates. The Politburo lays down the policy and the lemmings repeat it ad nauseum.

Second, many think the corruption and fraud under the visa system is how they were designed. Visa rules are not enforced properly and many of those rules need to be reformed as they were written long before the tech industry existed.

Third, there is a shortage of certain skillsets among citizens, creating the need for a visa system to fill that shortage. But the lesson is that we need to incentivize citizens to learn these skills so we do not need so many coming on visas. In other words, our university system is beyond broken and needs reform.

This place hasn’t been America since the ‘70s.

Immigration returned full-force in the ‘60s after a decades-long hiatus. H2B in the ‘80s. H1B in the ‘90s.

America and American exceptionalism slowly became victims through incrementalism, as people and businesses imported cheap labor.

Every foreigner that was hired took a job from an American. And we wonder why it takes two parents in the workforce to support a family now, when just one — usually the father — could do it before.

America was a frog in a kettle. The trickle was so subtle we didn’t even notice.

Save your disdain for someone else. I want accuracy in reporting, nothing more.

If you've at all followed my postings on this matter, you'd know that I've been supporting the narrative that the Trump Organization was focused on H-2B seasonal visas, not the H-1B career displacement visas, and that President Trump misspoke when he emphasized the Trump Organization's use of H-1B visas.

And if you were at all interested in intellectual honesty, you'd have pointed out that the Trump Organization's use of the H-1B visa was to fill the odd specialized job like fashion modeling and luxury hotel management, not the wholesale replacement of long-time tech employees at major corporations with Indian substitutes that has everyone up in arms.

-PJ

But the lesson is that we need to incentivize citizens to learn these skills so we do not need so many coming on visas.

One of the great ironies of this story is that my own STEM profession faced a major labor shortage in the 1980s and early 1990s because so many young people were migrating to IT fields instead. The rapid advances in personal computing made computer programming and systems engineering much more attractive than “traditional” STEM fields like civil, mechanical and chemical engineering.

This worked out very well for those in my age group who stuck with the dull world of those traditional STEM fields. Promotions and advancement in the industry were accelerated because we were an unusually small age cohort.

“Simply impose a high fee for each H1B visa ... so that it’s cheaper to hire someone already authorized to work in the US”

Maybe not a bad plan. Kind of a cousin to Trump’s tariff plan.

I know we want fewer regulations, but it could be smart to impose a rule that employers must justify the hiring of EACH and every foreigner on a case-by-case basis. Show the job announcement, where it was advertised, names and contact info of everyone who applied for it, detail how/why the foreigner is the best and only choice out of all the applicants. Bury them in so much paperwork that it’ll be easier and cheaper just to hire Americans.

Of course, they’d comes up with ways to game the system.

“Save your disdain for someone else.”

Why? I’ve got plenty to go around.

“I want accuracy in reporting, nothing more.”

As do I.

“If you’ve at all followed my postings on this matter…”

I haven’t. My comment wasn’t directed at you so you can unbunch your panties.

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