US president Donald Trump has a “nuanced and commonsense” view on H-1B visas and does not believe American workers should be replaced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Leavitt stressed that Trump’s position has often been misunderstood. When asked about the use of H-1B workers, she said the president wants foreign companies investing in the US to hire Americans in the long run. But in the early stages of building highly technical factories like battery or chip plants, companies may need to bring in skilled workers from abroad to get operations started.She said, “He has a very nuanced and commonsense opinion on this issue. He wants to see if foreign companies are investing trillions of dollars in the United States of America, and they’re bringing foreign workers with them to create very niche things like batteries, he wants to see that at the beginning to get those manufacturing facilities and those factories up and running.” According to her, Trump has made it clear to foreign investors that if they plan to do business in the US, they must eventually hire American workers. She also said Trump wants to revive the country’s manufacturing sector, and pointed to tariffs and new trade deals as part of that push.“That’s part of what he’s doing with his effective use of tariffs and cutting good trade deals around the world. That’s why he’s recruited trillions and trillions of dollars in investments into our country. Those are creating good-paying American jobs right here at home,” she said. The comments come as Trump faces criticism from some of his own supporters, who oppose the use of H-1B visas. Trump has recently said that he would welcome skilled immigrants who can help build complex factories and teach American workers to handle advanced technology, even if that means taking “a little heat” from his base. Trump noted that many new plants being built in the US are highly specialised, and companies cannot “hire people off an unemployment line” to run them. He said skilled workers from abroad may be needed at first, especially for massive chip factories worth billions of dollars. He argued that companies cannot open such plants “with people who don’t even know what a chip looks like,” and repeated that America still needs foreign talent for certain tasks.
