President Donald Trump sought to explain Wednesday his support of visas for skilled foreign workers, an issue that’s drawn fierce backlash from some conservatives and furthered divided his MAGA base.
Trump said certain industries require foreign workers to stand up factories and plants, and that it would be impossible for major new investments to proceed without them.
He suggested those who oppose H-1B visas misunderstood the complex business dynamics.
“You can’t come in, open up a massive computer chip factory for billions and billions of dollars, like is being done in Arizona, and think you’re going to hire people off an unemployment line to run it,” Trump said during remarks at a US-Saudi investment event in Washington, DC.
Trump acknowledged there were dissenting voices within his movement that could hurt him politically. But he said he was willing to take the risk.
“The people that are against this are really really smart. They’re unbelievable patriots, but they just don’t understand,” he said. “Our people have to be taught, this is something they’ve never done.”
“My poll numbers just went down, but with smart people, they’ve gone way up,” he added later.
He went on to reference an ICE raid in September on a Hyundai facility in Georgia, which saw authorities detain hundreds of South Korean contractors over their immigration status, as evidence of the country’s need for skilled foreign workers.
“They were told to get out. And I said, ‘Stop it. Don’t be stupid.’ And we worked it out, and now they’re teaching our people how to do it,” he said.