With President Donald Trump getting ready to put a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, the type of work permit used by high-skilled immigrants in fields like technology, some of the key tech CEOs would be expected to have their hair on fire — but instead, at least some of them are openly singing Trump's praises.
And there might be a key strategic reason for that, CNN's Brian Stelter told anchor Erica Hill on Monday: to boost Trump's ego to the point that he will be willing to listen to them and give them a voice on the finer details of the policy.
"Learning today about the H-1B visas and seeing how some of these tech CEOs are reacting to the idea of a $100,000 price tag on these visas, NVIDIA CEO, OpenAI CEO have been out on the airwaves touting this and thanking touting this and thanking President Trump," said Stelter. "And that all goes back to the flattery. In fact, listen to these two sound bites."
"We want all the brightest minds to come to the United States and to remember, immigration is the foundation of the American dream," said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang in a clip. "And we represent the American dream. And so I think immigration is and so I think immigration is really important to our company and really important to our nation's future, and I'm glad to see President Trump making the moves he's making."
"We need to get the smartest people in the country, and also streamlining that process, and also sort of aligning financial incentives seems good to me," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in another clip.
"As they say, Erica, flattery can get you anywhere or almost anywhere," said Stelter. "And these companies continue to try to one-up each other with giant, multi-billion dollar price tags, promising the world and beyond to President Trump."
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