Trump calls H-1B visas necessary to bring in 'certain talents' that he says the U.S. lacks

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

Nov. 11, 2025, 10:54 PM EST


President Donald Trump defended H-1B visas during an interview that aired Tuesday night, arguing foreign labor is needed at times because U.S. workers do not have "certain talents." Trump made the remarks during a Fox News interview when asked whether his administration would prioritize the costly visas that allow skilled workers from overseas to temporarily work in the United States. He said the U.S. has to “bring in talent.”

When pressed by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who said, "We have plenty of talented people here," Trump responded: “No, you don’t have — you don’t have certain talents. And you have to — people have to learn.” Trump has touted securing investments from abroad, including those that would boost the auto and artificial intelligence industries. But he suggested in the interview that some American workers might not be the best prepared for various phases of production.

"You can’t take people off an unemployment, like an unemployment line, and say, 'I’m going to put you into a factory,'" Trump said. "You can't just say a country is coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant, and going to take people off an unemployment line who haven't worked in five years, and they're going to start making their missiles. It doesn't work that well," he added.

Trump's comments acknowledging the role played by immigrants in economic growth and innovation contradicts some of his messaging during his administration's immigration crackdown, which has also made life more difficult for many immigrants who are

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-calls-h-1b-visas-necessary-bring-certain-talents-says-us-lacks-rcna243367

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Someone obviously handed him a speech to read and his handlers didn't get to him fast enough to ditch it.

Companies were encouraged to NOT pay for training and instead just offshore to countries that DID spend money on training and that would "save money and enhance 'profits'". Concomitant with that, they just brought in "crews" from south of the border (including some that you would see at the Home Depot parking lots). Thus many of the vocational high schools and colleges started to close down.

Biden had a whole program to help transition coal miners with training, etc., to do the newer energy tech and that was outright rejected and eventually eliminated. The round-up and humiliation of those South Korean workers constructing a battery plant in Georgia, was an example of the types of skilled construction work that has been lacking.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Meanwhile, he's decimating our schools and universities.

So this America First thing is total bullshit, right? Hey magats, pay attention.

[Irish_Dem]

3. He is destroying all American education so he can bring in immigrant labor?

I guess he is providing job security for ICE in perpetuity.

[Irish_Dem]

2. I thought only WHITE AMERICAN MALES are capable of holding any job?

[agingdem]

4. So what color are these workers he intends to "import"?

are these select few going to glean fields, carry bricks, muck out sewers, clean toilets, mow lawns, wash dishes, scrub floors, take care of other people’s children?..you know the brown and black human beings ICE vigilantes are beating, kidnapping, handcuffing, deporting…

[Javaman]

6. probably South African whites. nt

[riversedge]

21. Trump has already allowed a group of S African White to quickly immigrate to the USA but I am

sure he will do more.

[sop]

5. Many South Koreans wouldn't take those jobs after watching ICE treat them like criminals.

[delisen]

7. Bringing in workers vaccinated and educated by sucker nations

to replace unhealthy, uneducated MAGA workforce

Skim obedient workers from countries which invest in their citizens.Deport if they exercise right of free speech

Let Americans die from lack of healthcare. Let them starve or send them to prison if they demand rights

[mdbl]

8. Yes because Dump is such a great judge of talent

Just look at the shitheads he picked for all of his administration.

[OC375]

9. Investor

The only job title that isn’t going to get squeezed between the twin furies of H1B and A.I.

[Ray Bruns]

10. "U.S. workers do not have 'certain talents'."

Translation, “ We can’t find anyone with a Ph.D who will work for minimum wage.”

[Norrrm]

11. Educate me

Educate me

[SARose]

12. 600,000 Chinese students over 2 years

His plan will see the annual number of visas offered to Chinese students increase to the new figure over the next two years, up from the current 300,000.

The president has said that his plan will prevent “half the colleges in the United States” from going out of business, while appearing on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, and even took a swipe at the French people.

Laura Ingraham grilled the president, telling Trump that “a lot of MAGA folks are not thrilled” about his plan.

“Yeah, but you would have, as you know, historically Black colleges and universities would all be out of business,” Trump said.

More

So now our HBCU’s will be out of business without Chinese students? Seriously.

But if he charges the $100,000 or so “fee” for H1B visas - will taxpayers see this money? Color me skeptical.

And this

“MAGA was nobody else’s idea,” he said. “I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”

Ummmkay - see ya in November 2026.

[twodogsbarking]

13. About half of doctors are immigrants. RFKjerk is not. Any questions?

[IronLionZion]

14. He thinks all Americans are as dumb as his supporters

Here's the video

[Blackjackdavey]

15. Campaigns should be structured around this alone

Trump to MAGA: We're clearing the place out so you can get scraped off the unemployment line and work minimum wage, manual labor jobs. But air conditioned, white color jobs, those are for the wealthy foreign workers. Get over it, know your worth.

[Harker]

16. Which foreign countries are going to be manufacturing their missiles here?

[ChicagoTeamster]

17. He ignores that migrants used to come here on visas for farm and meat processing jobs Americans wouldn't do

They also work construction and other jobs now but Reagan stopped the enforcement of immigration laws against companies that hired undocumented workers primarily because of complaints about "the cost" to the hiring businesses of sponsoring and acquiring the H-2 visa employees compared to letting the employees take the risk of coming here illegally on their own. The US company hiring the most H-1Bs is Amazon. The second is Microsoft. I honestly think that the reason Trump is cracking down so hard on the undocumented workers is because he can't extort money from a visa system. I think Bezos and Gates already made some sort of agreement.

[twodogsbarking]

18. Reagan's friends pushed to stop enforcement. Otherwise they would have to pay a fair wage. You are correct.

[Martin68]

19. The tone deaf tangerine is alienating more people in his base with moves like this. Keep up the good work!

[camartinwv]

20. I worked with May H-1B employees over my 40 year IT career. They are paid Les and work longer hours. Period.

They generally are very talented but so are many US workers. We just expect fair compensation.

[thought crime]

22. Same.

And US IT workers get paid less than they would otherwise, because H-1B's are just used to over-supply against the demand. But off-shoring has had a greater effect.

[róisín_dubh]

23. Well yeah...

I’m not sure we’re a huge producer of Eastern European hooker models…
Oh I forgot, she didn’t come on an H1B visa, she was an Einstein visa recipient or some other bullshit