Is MAGA against the American Dream?

When Donald Trump chose Sriram Krishnan as a policy advisor on artificial intelligence, he opened Pandora's box and exposed (perhaps deliberately?) one of the major fissures within the American right.

Krishnan is a prominent Indian-American technology entrepreneur, exemplifying the American Dream. He was born in Chennai, India, into a middle-class family within the restricted framework of his home country. Legend has it that his family could not afford internet access, but Sriram still managed to get his family to buy him a computer with which, alone, he practiced the basics of coding in the evenings. With that precarious foundation, he propelled himself into the world of information technology until he achieved the success that took him to the White House.

The American Dream is an American foundational myth. It represents a set of values deeply rooted in the narrative of a country that since its founding, in record time managed to become the most important and powerful in the world, defeating the empires that preceded and shaped it.

The world-leading USA bases its success on upward social mobility, sustained by the idea of a land of opportunity for everyone. The American Dream also represents the self-made man and with him effort, tenacity and individual motivation. In short, the American Dream is a tribute to merit, courage and vision.

President Trump is going to find, in this second presidency, a country divided, confrontational, more impoverished and complex than when he left it in 2020. Trump is also going to find a country that in many respects has lost hope and the narrative of how it perceives itself. In just four years much has happened, the disastrous "bidenomics" have ruined many sectors of the economy, the education system at all levels is a hunting ground for the radical left, the world is a bomb about to explode on every continent.

In short, the USA and President Trump need to return to the founding myths, to sustain and repair the soul of America. This is a miraculous second chance to regain the pride of being American and the values that make the country great again: what better for this purpose than a character like Sriram Krishnan? A self-made and successful young immigrant, who has raised a family he can boast of, specializing in the industry of the future.

However, Krishnan's nomination generated a negative reaction that took on ridiculous, contradictory, and at times childish dimensions. To the offensive against his nomination was added the controversy surrounding H-1B visas for specially skilled foreign workers, whose caps and bureaucracy both Krishnan and other businessmen had criticized.

The controversy exposed internal tensions in Trump's coalition, in which at least two competing cosmogonies coexist. On the one hand, citizens who bet on innovation, risk and competition, i.e. those who want to adapt the values that made the country great to the current challenges and challenges of the future. On the other hand, those who dream of going back in time, to a fictional and idyllic past. Sectors desirous of protectionism and isolationism that they pretentiously call "conservatism."

But that is not being conservative, because it is one thing to preserve values and another thing to try to corset the country in a bubble. It is not possible to be a world leader hiding behind a comfort that, to top it all off, is in frank decline. Protectionism and isolationism are impeding evils for countries and suicidal for the economies of empires. The United States did not become great by cowardly navel-gazing.

The reaction of activists like Loomer, Gaetz or Bannon; who claimed control of the MAGA heartland, unleashed a response from Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk vehemently defended hiring foreign talent, emphasizing that restricting it benefits competition, such as China. Ironically, he wondered, "Do you want the US to win or lose?" X's boss also denounced the "fixed pie fallacy," arguing that job and business creation is unlimited.

How can it be that there are MAGA sectors to which these truisms still need to be explained? From a capitalist perspective, dynamism is crucial for success. Prosperity demands growth and competitiveness. In contrast, the vision that prioritizes identity objectives is not only related to the most rancid of Wokism but is a path that leads to national degradation. Protectionism is not patriotic.

The truth is that the infighting between Musk and MAGA's hardcore base seems to have unleashed a civil war whose scope we are just beginning to glimpse. As a counteroffensive, Ramaswamy backed Musk with a lengthy argument that America was doomed to decline if it moved toward mediocrity.

"The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit," he wrote. "A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. 'Normalcy' doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China."

President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed Elon Musk by wading into the dispute that has divided his supporters by claiming he has always liked them and has employees on H-IB visas working at his properties, "It's a great program" he indicated.

Trump's openness to legal immigration confirms the president-elect's vision and political maturity, which is in no way contradicted by his fight against illegal immigration. Only a fevered mind can pretend to compare the two. A society that does not claim merit, improvement or effort for itself and its leaders is a society condemned to the demagogy of instant gratification, typical of populism that pretends to solve problems with the magic wand of writing laws. To expect excellence to emerge from these sources is ridiculous.

Over the weekend Musk took a very combative stance, claiming that the reason he is in the United States, along with his companies is because of H1B visas. The richest man in the world talked about going to war over this issue. But in the last hours he moderated his words in an attempt to calm tensions. The billionaire proposed a possible reform of the program, but it should be noted that in previous statements he had promised to expel the "hateful and unrepentant racists" from the Republican Party. Musk, again, is diagnosing the problem very well.

If the US wants to retain its leadership and have a chance to dig itself out of the hole that Joe Biden has put it in after four years of a stupefying administration, the best thing is for Musk and Krishnan's vision to succeed. Anything else is a demagogic, paternalistic and short-sighted project. A pitiful alternative that will deprive US companies of talented workers, poison the economy and strengthen China.

This internal conflict has been, in a way, a wake-up call and an opportunity for Trump to define the profile of his second presidency and the future of the conservative movement in the United States.

This is a pivotal moment to determine whether the country chooses leadership and growth that upholds the American Dream or hides in stagnation and isolationism that only offers decadence. For as the great Thomas Sowell said, "The American Dream is alive for those unversed in the ideology of victimhood."

In the heat of battle, Elon Musk wrote: "Anyone – of any race, creed or nationality – who came to America and worked like hell to contribute to this country will forever have my respect. America is the land of freedom and opportunity. Fight with every fiber of your being to keep it that way!"

Today, President Donald Trump broke a lance for these words and brought back the American Dream.

Welcome to the American dream.