Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown

The Billionaire Bros Do The Immigrant Worker Two-Step


Listen Later

One thing you can say about Trump is that he’s absolutely clear on his furious opposition to immigrants taking American jobs.

Except, of course, when the corporate honchos profiting from cheap immigrant labor are billionaire funders of Trump’s campaigns – or, hello, when Trump himself is doing the hiring!

A work-permit program called H-1B actually allows corporate giants to import foreigners to take US jobs. Trump loudly denounced this in his first term, but that was pre-Elon. When gabillionaire Elon Musk became Donald’s campaign Sugar Daddy last year, he turned out to be a mass abuser of the H-1B loophole – apparently even firing workers in his Tesla corporation and replacing them with cheaper foreign imports.

Yet, far from scolding his new Best Buddy, Trump did a full-body flip-flop. Now hailing H-1B as “a great program,” he admits that he, too, has long used it, even when he was denouncing it as a shameful rip-off of American workers.

Trump’s use of the foreign hire scheme is even chintzier than Musk’s for he uses a companion H-2 loophole to import hundreds of low-paid foreigners to take jobs as cooks, waiters, housekeepers, and farmworkers in his luxury resorts and hotels – including at Mar-a-Lago.

Amazing. These are lordly billionaires reducing themselves to sleaze by exploiting a corporate scheme to shortchange American and foreign workers alike. Moreover, whether trying to import engineers or waiters, the law requires these über-rich applicants to lie. They must swear that there are no American citizens available who can do these jobs.

This is Jim Hightower saying… Welcome to Don and Elon’s phantasmagoric wonderland, where nothing is a lie if they say it’s true.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Jim Hightower's Radio LowdownBy Jim Hightower

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

338 ratings


More shows like Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown

View all
The Rachel Maddow Show by Rachel Maddow, MS NOW

The Rachel Maddow Show

37,107 Listeners

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy by Best of the Left: Perspectives on Politics, Culture, and Economics

Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy

3,372 Listeners

The Nation Podcasts by The Nation Magazine

The Nation Podcasts

437 Listeners

Ralph Nader Radio Hour by Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour

1,204 Listeners

The Intercept Briefing by The Intercept

The Intercept Briefing

6,110 Listeners

The DSR Network by The DSR Network

The DSR Network

1,795 Listeners

Stay Tuned with Preet by Preet Bharara

Stay Tuned with Preet

32,351 Listeners

The Hartmann Report by Thom Hartmann

The Hartmann Report

1,380 Listeners

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast by MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

9,441 Listeners

The Al Franken Podcast by The Al Franken Podcast

The Al Franken Podcast

8,558 Listeners

Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner by Crossover Media Group

Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner

222 Listeners

Unf*cking The Republic by UNFTR Media

Unf*cking The Republic

705 Listeners

#SistersInLaw by Politicon

#SistersInLaw

10,506 Listeners

Countdown with Keith Olbermann by iHeartPodcasts

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

5,548 Listeners

Main Justice by MS NOW, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord

Main Justice

7,106 Listeners