High-profile supporters of President-elect Donald Trump clashed online over a visa programme intended to bring skilled tech workers to the US – a preview of possible tensions in the upcoming Trump White House.

In a post on X Thursday, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was tapped by Trump to slash government spending, defended the H-1B visa system and criticised American parenting practices.

“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” Ramawamy wrote in a long post arguing that foreign workers improve the competitiveness of the US economy.

But the post quickly attracted backlash from Trump supporters who are strongly opposed to immigration of any sort.

The row played out online over the holidays, as mainstream Republicans and far-right influencers joined the criticism.

Ramaswamy’s view of skilled worker visas was backed by Elon Musk, a tech billionaire selected to co-direct Trump’s proposed “Department of Government Efficiency”.

Taking aim at American culture, Ramaswamy wrote: “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian [the top student in a class], will not produce the best engineers.”

But Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a former Republican presidential candidate, argued against the tech bosses.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” she wrote in response on X. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Haley, who like Ramaswamy was born to Indian immigrants, was joined in opposing the visa programme by far-right accounts online.

Laura Loomer, an anti-Islam activist who regularly spreads conspiracy theories but is also known for her unwavering support of Trump, led the online charge with posts viewed millions of times.

Earlier in the week, Loomer criticised Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan, an India-born entrepreneur, as the White House senior advisor on artificial intelligence. Loomer wrote that Krishnan was a “career leftist” who is “in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda”.

Cheered on by far-right X accounts, she also called Indian immigrants “invaders” and directed racist tropes at Krishnan.

Loomer then accused Musk, who owns X, of “censorship” for allegedly restricting replies to her posts on the network and removing her from a paid premium programme.

Echoing criticisms of Trump about the influence of X boss, she wrote: “‘President Musk’ is starting to look real… Free speech is an illusion.”

Musk meanwhile defended the H-1B visa programme as attracting the “top ~0.1%” of engineering talent”.

“Thinking of America as a pro sports team that has been winning for a long time and wants to keep winning is the right mental construct,” he tweeted.

But critics online posted screenshots of job postings at his companies filled by people with H1-B visas, showing salaries of $200,000 and much less, and argued these hires did not constitute an elite talent pool but rather a way to hold down the wages of US-born workers.

The number of H-1B visas issued is capped at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s from US institutions.

Recent research by Boundless, an immigration consultancy, indicates that around 73% of the H-1B visas are issued to Indian nationals, with 12% issued to Chinese citizens.

Trump promised that mass deportations of undocumented immigrants will start immediately after he takes office. He has been a critic of the H-1B progamme and tightened eligibility for that visaa during his first term.

His vice-president, JD Vance, also campaigned against the programme, but has close ties to the tech world. In his previous career as a venture capitalist, Vance funded startups that hired workers with H-1B visas.

In recent days the president-elect also denied that he’s unduly under the influence of Musk and the other billionaires who backed his campaign.

On Sunday, Trump told a conservative conference in Arizona that he was not under Musk’s thumb.

“You know, they’re on a new kick,” he told the crowd at AmericaFest, organised by Turning Point USA. “All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.”

“No, no, that’s not happening,” he said. “He’s not gonna be president.”