WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President-elect Donald Trump has declared that he is a “believer in H-1B” visas, quashing the opposition to the programme for qualified professionals to work in the US that pitted the right-wing fringe against his advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. “It’s a great program,” he told the New York Post in a phone interview on Saturday, December 28.

He said, “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them.”

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times,” he told the newspaper that is a part of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp.

Trump has supported reforming the immigration system to make it merit-based, adopting a points system like Canada‘s or Australia‘s that gives weight to academic and employable qualifications.

He has said that he wanted foreign students graduating from US universities to get green cards with their diplomas.

He reiterated it during his campaign this year: “What I want to do, and what I will do, is — you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country.”

The differences over H1-B visas and the immigration of highly qualified persons boiled over among Trump’s loyalists after he appointed Sriram Krishnan, an Indian immigrant, as his artificial intelligence adviser.

One of the first salvos was fired by Laura Loomer, a far-right Trump supporter in the base of his loyalists known as the MAGA, an acronym for Trump’s rallying cry of “Make America Great Again”.

She posted on Musk’s X, “Deeply disturbing to see the appointment of Sriram Krishnan” and accused him of wanting to remove all restrictions on the number of green cards, which give permanent resident immigration status.