Hell, Trump was the last word on immigration in his first term when Ramaswamy was a surname which never resounded from American tongues. And Elon Musk was hardly heard outside of Tesla. That was Trump who built the ‘Wall’ and who wanted Muslims packed back to their “sh*thole countries”.

Trump had no issues with mediocrity or meritocracy but all that Musk and Ramaswamy have for breakfast, lunch and dinner is meritocracy. It is Silicon Valley nose-in-the-air immigrant talent versus homegrown diehard Trumpers. The former root for meritocracy and merit-based immigration reforms. The latter are committed to anti-immigration and see in Musk and Ramaswamy the ogres battling against Trump’s populist policies. A section of the media says the second Trump administration promises to be riddled with fissures.

Do Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two honchos with their immigration baggage and given charge of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), care? The answer is no. Musk and Ramaswamy carry an aura that pisses off people at large and one of their appointments is a techie answering to the call 'Sriram Krishnan', an Indian-origin venture capitalist appointed to roll out artificial intelligence policy in the 2nd Trump administration

Krishnan comes with a big mouth and his statements asking for the removal of caps put on green cards for skilled immigrants are now cannon fodder for the MAGA brigade. Krishnan has triggered a raging "social media firestorm" and there's no dearth of the far-right willing to take on the Krishnans of the world.

Rightwing fanatics like Laura Loomer, Ann Coulter and Matt Gaetz, are fanning the firestorm, and for them getting foreign-origin meritocrats on board Trump’s luxury liner is "deeply disturbing."

Loomer was the first to go after Musk and Ramaswamy. And Elon Musk's social media platform 'X' is the perfect stage to fight. Trump's DOGE co-chairs against Trump's MAGA supporters. Elon Musk immigrated to the United States with an H-1B visa. And he is a goner for hiring top global talent. Musk says America won't be America without recruiting the best minds worldwide. "If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be," Musk posted on X.

Vivek Ramaswamy is Musk's newly-minted partner. A son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy gives Musk an ego-massage every time the two knock heads and they would be knocking heads for a long time unless President Donald Trump gets fed up with DOGE and dodges past both the foreign-origin DOGE guys. For now, however, Trump isn't bored with Elon and Vivek. "A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ... will not produce the best engineers," Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X.

Question is, for how long will President Donald Trump tow the weight of DOGE and Musk and Ramaswamy? The flames from the backlash from Trump's MAGA men and women are already burning bright and Krishnan, unlike Lord Krishna, doesn’t look like capable of delivering another Gita. Musk's pal "Mr Krishnan" believes in "India First" while MAGA is sold on "USA First", and Krishnan's "goal is to replace American workers."

To make matters worse for Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s wear, Indian-origin Nikki Haley, who stopped carrying a torch for President Trump and who was US Ambassador to the United Nations in the first Trump administration, has thrown her lot with MAGA, training her guns on Musk and Ramaswamy, insisting that the United States should put its money on homegrown American talent.

"There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture," she posted on 'X', challenging Ramaswamy, who had gone all-out after her in the Republican primaries, ridiculing her for all of her inadequacies and Nikki Haley is a US-educated symbol of American genius who didn’t get Trump’s nod for a job in his 2nd administration. (IPA Service)