·Elon MuskElon Musk once vowed to ‘go to war’ for H-1Bs.
Now he’s silent on Trump’s $100K fee—and smiling beside him at Charlie Kirk’s funeralBy Eva RoytburgBy Eva RoytburgFellow, NewsEva RoytburgFellow, NewsEva is a fellow on Fortune's news desk.SEE FULL BIO Musk has been largely quiet on Trump ever since the two had a bitter feud earlier in the summer.
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCLate last year, Elon Musk inflamed a brutal schism in MAGA-world after mising he would “go to war” to defend the H-1B visa system.
Now, as Donald Trump imposes a $100,000 charge on each new application, Musk is quiet — and smiling alongside the president at Charlie Kirk’s funeral.
The war over Christmas The Tesla and SpaceX chief has long been one of Silicon Valley’s most minent defenders of the H-1B gram, which allows U.S.
companies to bring in skilled workers when no domestic candidates can be found.The gram became a flashpoint after Trump supporters raged against venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as the White House’s new AI senior policy director, with the uar quickly morphing into a fierce debate over H-1B visas and skilled immigration.
Krishnan, an Indian-American entrepreneur, has publicly advocated for an expansion of the gram by removing country caps, which was seen in opposition to Trump’s “America First” base that worries immigrants taking jobs Americans could otherwise do.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer led the charge, blasting Krishnan as a threat to Trump’s “America First” agenda, while allies Matt Gaetz derided “ bros” for shaping immigration policy.
That led to Musk, who said he entered the U.S. himself on an H-1B visa as a South African-born entrepreneur, to enter into the debate.
“There is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America,” Musk posted on Christmas Eve.
“If you force the world’s best talent to play for the other side, America will LOSE.” When hard-liners in the MAGA movement attacked the gram as un-American, Musk lashed back in fane terms: “Take a big step back…I will go to war on this issue the s of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”His posts ignited a bitter MAGA feud, unleashing vitriolic and often racist attacks on H-1B immigrants — particularly Indians, who make up 71% of visa holders.
Pharma billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy was reportedly kicked out of his job co-leading DOGE after a post defending H1-B visas upset Trump.
A few days before the New Year, Musk had softened publicly, conceding that the system was “broken,” and suggesting fixes higher salary thresholds and yearly costs to ensure companies don’t exploit cheap labor.
Trump’s $100K shock Fast forward nine months, and Trump is now taking that logic to the extreme.
On Friday, the president issued a clamation requiring a $100,000 payment with every new H-1B petition — a move Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick first suggested could be annual.
The White House later clarified the fee is one-time only, applied to new applications, not renewals. Still, the shock was immediate.
Bay Area venture capitalist Deedy Das warned the policy would gut startups’ financial runway and choke America’s ability to attract global talent.
“If you stifle even that, it just makes it that much harder to compete on a global level,” he told CBS. Smaller founders called it a catastrophe.
Netflix cofounder and Democratic mega-donor Reed Hastings broke ranks, hailing the fee as a “great solution” that would eliminate the lottery and reserve visas for “very high-value jobs.” But Hastings’ take seems to put him in the minority..
Most of the industry seems to view the measure as a body blow that will hurt companies’ ability to hire the best talent. Musk’s silence on the issue Against this backdrop, Musk’s silence is striking.
His relationship with Trump has been on a rollercoaster since the Christmas H-1B debacle.
Once Trump’s “first buddy” in the White House and the biggest Republican donor of 2024, Musk broke publicly with the president in June over Trump’s tax-and-spending plan, blasting its impact on U.S.
debt and clean-energy incentives.The feud escalated fast: Musk called for Trump’s impeachment, warned his tariffs would spark a recession, and even claimed Trump’s name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump fired back by threatening to sic Musk’s own Department of Government Efficiency on his companies and told NBC their relationship was “over.” Since then, Musk has been quiet on Trump.
Yet on Sunday, the two appeared together for the first time since that bitter clash, smiling and shaking hands at Charlie Kirk’s memorial.
Whether Musk is holding back to tect his fragile truce with Trump or to quietly endorse the logic of higher costs, the silence is striking — a far cry from his Christmas vow to “go to war” for immigrant engineers himself.
Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of . Apply for an invitation.