- Trump defends welcoming skilled foreign workers and expanding H-1B visas, saying they’ll train Americans and build high-tech factories.
- His remarks at a U.S.-Saudi forum angered MAGA loyalists, sparking #AmericaLast backlash and plunging approval ratings.
- Despite infighting with allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump doubles down on global deals and the “smart people” strategy.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump isn’t backing down from the firestorm brewing in his own camp.
As accusations fly that he’s abandoning the “America First” mantra that powered his 2024 comeback, Trump lashed out at his detractors Wednesday, insisting his vision for the movement is stronger than ever—even if it means welcoming foreign workers to build America’s future.
The outburst came during a high-stakes U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center, where Trump shared the stage with tech titans like Elon Musk and NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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The event, aimed at boosting economic ties between the U.S. and the kingdom, drew sharp contrasts to the populist rhetoric that once defined Trump’s base. But for the president, it was just another day of doubling down.
Details that Led to the Response
It all started bubbling over last week, when Trump waded into the immigration debate in ways that left some MAGA loyalists reeling. In a pointed interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, he brushed off complaints that Chinese students were snagging college spots meant for Americans.
“I know what MAGA wants better than anyone else,” Trump declared, a line that’s since been dissected and decried across conservative circles as tone-deaf.
The backlash snowballed the very next day. Trump, pressed on his support for expanding H-1B visas to attract high-skilled foreign talent, quipped that there simply aren’t enough qualified Americans to fill the gaps right now.
“You can’t come in, open a massive computer chip factory for billions and billions of dollars like is being done in Arizona, and think you’re gonna hire people off an unemployment line to run it,” he said at the forum, his voice rising with that familiar mix of bravado and frustration.
“They’re gonna have to bring thousands of people with them—and I’m gonna welcome those people!”
He didn’t stop there.
“I love my conservative friends and I love MAGA but this is MAGA! And those people are going to teach our people to make computer chips, and in a short period of time our people are gonna be doing great.”
To the room packed with billionaires and executives—many of whom rely on global talent pipelines—the words landed like a rallying cry.
The crowd, including the controversial crown prince at the center of the 2018 Jamal Khashoggi murder, erupted in applause.
But back home, on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), the reaction was brutal.
MAGA Reacts to America’s Talent Expansion
The hashtag #AmericaLast exploded, with users mourning the death of the movement Trump built.
“MAGA is dead,” one viral post lamented, capturing the raw disillusionment rippling through the base.
This isn’t just about visas or factories, though. It’s the latest fracture in a MAGA coalition that’s showing real cracks after a whirlwind year of global deal-making and domestic headaches.
Trump’s approval rating, per a fresh Marist poll, has cratered to 39%—his lowest since the chaos of January 6, 2021.
Democrats now hold a 14-point edge in generic midterm ballot tests, their biggest lead since 2017.
And Trump knows it. In a rare moment of candor at the forum, he admitted, “My poll numbers just went down”—before pivoting hard: “but with smart people they’ve gone way up.”
Can This Fire Be Contained?
The Epstein files saga has only poured fuel on the fire. Longtime ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, now branded a “traitor” by the president himself, has been one of the loudest voices demanding full transparency on the late sex offender’s documents.
Flanked by Epstein survivors outside the Capitol on Tuesday, Greene didn’t hold back.
“No one cares about the foreign countries. No one cares about the never-ending amount of foreign leaders coming to the White House every single week,” she fumed, accusing Trump’s globe-trotting of sidelining kitchen-table issues like skyrocketing costs.
The feud has turned personal, with Greene slamming Trump for what she sees as a betrayal on releasing the files—a fight she says has “ripped MAGA apart.”
Trump, for his part, seems unfazed by the infighting.
Fresh off a bilateral meeting with the crown prince in the Oval Office on Tuesday, he announced plans to dive into yet another international hotspot: the civil war in Sudan.
MAGA Pounces on Saudi Arabia Developments
“Arab Leaders from all over the World, in particular the highly respected crown prince of Saudi Arabia… have asked me to use the power and influence of the Presidency to bring an immediate halt to what is taking place in Sudan,” Trump said.
He pledged to team up with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and other partners to end the “atrocities” and stabilize the region—a move that underscores his administration’s aggressive foreign policy push, even as critics at home cry foul.
Amid the chaos, whispers in MAGA circles have turned to scapegoats. Some online trolls have pointed fingers at White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the steely Florida operative dubbed the “Ice Maiden” for her no-nonsense style.
But Trump’s inner circle is circling the wagons. Vice President JD Vance dismissed the attacks outright in a statement to reporters:
“The Twitter trolls running their mouths don’t know the first thing about Susie Wiles or how this White House works.”
Even Donald Trump Jr., Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other family allies have piled on, rejecting any notion that Wiles is steering the ship astray.
And Trump? He couldn’t resist a shoutout from the forum stage, with Wiles seated front and center beside Musk and Huang.
“The most powerful woman in the world,” he boomed.
“She can destroy a country with one phone call. That’s power.”
As Trump wraps up this Saudi visit—his latest in a string of overseas jaunts that have MAGA purists grinding their teeth—the questions linger.
Can he stitch his base back together before the midterms? Or is this the start of a deeper unraveling?
For now, the president is betting on his gut: that what he calls “smart people” will see the bigger picture, even if it means bending the rules he once preached.
In MAGA’s heartland, though, the jury’s still out—and the volume’s only getting louder.
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