President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Sriram Krishnan as Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the White House has not only ignited heated criticism from a far-right MAGA Republican Lara Loomer but also brought broader debates on immigration and culture to the forefront.  

Loomer’s objections focus on what she perceives as a departure from President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First,” policies. But others, including former Republican Presidential candidate, Vivek Ramawamy emphasized that the hiring foreign-born talent as necessary for fostering innovation and excellence.

Indian-origin Ramaswamy, who was chosen alongside Elon Musk by the President-elect to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), on December 26, 2024, tweeted, “The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and wrong explanation).” 

He went on to state, “A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers and if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH.”

Ramaswamy argued that the American culture has “venerated mediocrity over excellence,” for decades, emphasizing that this cultural issue begins early in life. He pointed out that prioritizing social norms that “celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian,” creates systemic issues in technical talent development.  

He called for a cultural shift adding, “‘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.” He described this moment as an opportunity for America’s “Sputnik moment.”  

“We’ve awaken[ed] from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up,” added Ramaswamy. “A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.”

Loomer has been strongly criticizing Krishnan’s appointment alleging that his support for removing caps on green cards would disadvantage American STEM students by allowing more foreign workers in the US job market. She also accused Trump’s appointees of seeking personal enrichment rather than national betterment.

She stated, “This is not America First policy,” arguing that Trump’s administration is increasingly populated by individuals who, in her view, oppose his immigration agenda. 

“How will we control immigration in our country and promote America First innovation when Trump appointed [Krishnan] who wants to REMOVE all restrictions on green card caps in the United States,” she questioned. “Today’s H1B’s super-genius engineer is tomorrow’s chain migration superspreader who brings in 100 welfare dependent family members. In the age of remote work and AI agents, there is NO NEED to bring in more Indian programmers.”

Loomer, who made the “controversial,” remark that the White House would smell of “curry,” if Vice President Kamala Harris became President, further escalated her critique by linking Krishnan to Indian American lawmaker from California, Ro Khanna. She cited Krishnan’s campaign contributions as evidence of a shared agenda.  

Khanna defended Krishnan, dismissing criticism based on ethnicity as unfounded.  He went on to state, “Yes, I am proud of his support. I am for reforming the H1-B system. And I guess the test of your influence with the new President is whether Sriram will have his role. My money is on him. Having people smart about tech and the future of AI is good for America.”

Rep. Khanna in tweet called those attacking Krishnan’s appointment based on his Indian roots “fools,” urging critics to apply the same scrutiny to other foreign-born tech leaders such as South African-born Elon Musk and or Taiwanese-born Jensen Huang.  

“It is GREAT that talent around the world wants to come here, not to China, and that Sriram can rise to the highest levels. It’s called American exceptionalism,” added Khanna. 

Describing it as “deeply disturbing,” Loomer expressed concern over the growing number of “career leftists,” being appointed to roles in Trump’s administration, despite holding views that directly contradict Trump’s America First agenda.

David Sacks, recently nominated for appointment as the White House A.I. and Crypto Czar, defended Krishnan against Loomer’s accusations. Sriram is definitely not a “career leftist,” Sacks retorted noting, “Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right.” 

“Sriram has been a U.S. citizen for a decade. He’s not ‘running America.’ He’s advising on A.I. policy. He will have no influence over U.S. immigration policy. These attacks have become crude…” he said. Sacks also clarified that Krishnan’s stance on green cards involved country-based caps, not eliminating all limits. 

Currently, applicants from India have an 11-year wait whereas applicants from many other countries have no wait at all, Sacks explained pointing out that Sriram supports a merit-based system for receiving a green card. 

Sacks also dismissed Loomer’s claim that Krishnan had supported Kamala Harris’s Presidential campaign stating it was a case of mistaken identity. He mentioned, “It’s a different person with the same name. If you knew anything about tech, you might even know he’s a VC at a different firm. Have you told the President yet? Maybe it’s time to stop with this crusade before you embarrass yourself further.”

Meanwhile, Krishnan’s namesake, a New York based Startup Helper, has jokingly tweeted “After all of this, I should probably just show up at the White House on January 20^th to claim a desk.”

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