USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Trump Awards National Medals To Musk, Brin, Huang, Su, Dell, And Nadella After Vance Visa Move
Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang, Lisa Su. Michael Dell also received the National Medal of Science at the ceremony.
10 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Trump Interrupted by Protesters at San Antonio Rally for Ken Paxton →
Medals After Visa Crackdown
President Donald Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su, and he presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a ceremony tied to a science summit. Vice President JD Vance had earlier announced that the US would suspend a major visa program for Microsoft’s workers, and Vance told a news conference, "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."
Trump credited the honourees with “helping pioneer an incredible future for America,” and Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation hours after the administration’s visa action. Microsoft said the company’s position was that "the vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans," and the company said 80% of its roughly 6,000 H-1B visa applications were for existing employees, not new hires.
Vance’s Accusations
JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing the H-1B visa system and said the move was part of his work leading a fraud task force. Vance argued that Microsoft laid off 6,000 US workers while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, and he said, "You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants."
Microsoft pushed back by saying its H-1B filings were not a mass effort to bring new workers into the country, and Microsoft said, "These were not to hire new people." Microsoft also said it files H-1B petitions only for workers who meet the requirements of the visa programme, and the company said, "We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector".
Ties, AI, and Fallout
The White House framed the awards as part of a broader push for US leadership in artificial intelligence, and Trump said, “Because of these people here, we will always be on top. No one else can compete with us,” at the medal ceremony.
“‘Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,’ Vance told a news conference.”
Al Jazeera said the medal ceremony came hours after the Trump administration announced it was suspending Microsoft and other top tech companies from using the H-1B visa system due to alleged fraudulent use.
The Mercury News reported that Trump praised Nadella at the ceremony while making no statements about the company’s hiring of foreign workers, and it quoted Trump saying, "For more than three decades, Satya Nadella has been a key figure in the transformation of Microsoft".
The Mercury News also said the crackdown overlapped with the administration’s efforts to reduce immigration that it says has come at the expense of American workers, and it quoted Vance saying, "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers,".