The Daily Populous Wednesday January 1st, 2025 morning edition
Authored by salon.com and submitted by salon

Former CNN host Don Lemon mocked the fiercely divided MAGA base for igniting a civil war over immigration after billionaire Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump both said they supported H1B visas for skilled foreign workers.

Musk’s support for more skilled immigrants, particularly in tech, angered right-wing immigration hardliners like Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer.

"We haven’t fought these battles over years and years and years to allow American citizens of every race, ethnicity, religion, be gutted by the sociopathic overlords in Silicon Valley,” Bannon said on his podcast War Room on Monday.

Even former Trump U.N. ambassador and onetime rival Nikki Haley chimed in to defend American workers. “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” Haley wrote in response to Musk’s suggestion that Americans were too dumb to innovate technology.

Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, had no sympathy for MAGA’s tech bro-nationalist infighting.

"Oh my gosh, I love this," Lemon said in a 40-minute video posted to his YouTube channel. "Now you’re finding out, you dumb f**ing idiots. Now you’re just figuring this s**t out. You’re so f**king stupid, and you deserve it. And you f**king deserve it because you’re so dumb. It’s hypocrisy. So go with me here. Yes. I am gloating over your stupidity and how you were taken. I’m cracking. I’m cackling – I am. You have been co-opted because you’re in a f**ing cult and you don’t even realize it because you have stupid MAGA brain, and you don’t get it. How stupid and dumb are you?"

Though Trump has previously said the country’s H1B program was “very bad,” he sided with Musk in the feud, asserting that he “always believed” in H1B visas. Despite this support for a small population of immigrants, the president-elect’s top priority remains securing the border and enacting a mass deportation of migrant workers.

Such a deportation would have devastating impacts on the American workforce, Lemon pointed out.

“Some farmers say without these workers, they have about two days that they can run their farms," he said. “And then after that, it’s over.”

ediblebugrepellent on December 31st, 2024 at 23:09 UTC »

You dumb f***s, what are you magats mad about? Few of you are educated enough to be employed by a tech company using H1-b labor, anyways. - Elon, probably.

libghost on December 31st, 2024 at 22:38 UTC »

Show me the lie:

> "Now you’re finding out, you dumb f\*ing idiots. Now you’re just figuring this s**t out. You’re so f**king stupid, and you deserve it. And you f**king deserve it because you’re so dumb. It’s hypocrisy. So go with me here. Yes. I am gloating over your stupidity and how you were taken. I’m cracking. I’m cackling – I am. You have been co-opted because you’re in a f**ing cult and you don’t even realize it because you have stupid MAGA brain, and you don’t get it. How stupid and dumb are you?"*

orcinyadders on December 31st, 2024 at 20:55 UTC »

Maybe I’m crazy, but is this really an issue for maga? Sure, there are some loud people. But I’ve found most maga people in my life don’t really care when it boils down to it. They just kind of go along with whatever Trump says or does, and typically parrot his talking points without much thought or reasoning. Not trying to be harsh, but I’m just calling it how I see it.