President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants to crack down hard on immigration once he’s in office. But his own businesses keep employing foreign guest workers - hiring more of them this year than any other year on record, CNN reported.
Forbes first reported that Trump hired more foreign workers than ever before in 2024.
Firms connected to some of Trump’s top supporters and choices to serve in his administration have also hired foreign guest workers this year.
The Trump businesses that have increased their numbers of foreign guest workers include his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida, a number of his golf courses, and a winery in Virginia.
This year, Trump’s companies got the green light from the government to hire 209 foreign workers, almost double the amount of guest workers his businesses were permitted to hire about 10 years ago. They include housekeepers, cooks, desk clerks and servers.
Trump has noted that since some of his clubs are more seasonal, they will have temporary jobs that Americans looking for full-time jobs are more hesitant to take. Some former Trump club workers told CNN that the former president could get more Americans to work at his businesses if they raised the salaries or offered other benefits.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars on electing Trump. Tesla requested and received permission to hire about 2,000 foreign workers with specific desirable skills this year. Other Musk companies also got approval to hire foreign workers.
Subsidiaries of companies operated by Howard Lutnick, Trump’s choice to be commerce secretary, and one operated by Fran Bisignano, the former president’s choice to be the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, also got approval to hire foreign guest workers.
At Trump’s properties, most of the guest workers have received work visas via the H-2B program, allowing companies to hire staff if there aren’t enough Americans able, willing, qualified or available to take temporary jobs.
Thousands of U.S. businesses use guest workers, but the hiring process can be difficult. Some of the president-elect’s supporters have called for the government to reverse that visa program.
Project 2025, the rightwing agenda written by a number of former Trump administration officials, called for Congress to restrict the program and put in place a “gradual and predictable phasedown.” The agenda also stated that the U.S. “must put the interests of American workers first.”
Trump has attempted to distance himself from the project, but he also chose Russell Vought, a co-author of Project 2025, to head the Office of Management and Budget.
The Center for Immigration Studies is a think tank that backs tighter immigration controls. Its executive director, Mark Krikorian, told CNN that foreign guest worker programs can help “businesses at the expense of workers.”
Krikorian backs the president-elect and said that he doesn’t criticize businesses, including Trump’s, for using the programs. But he added the programs, specifically, the H-2B visas, undermine American workers’ bargaining power in some areas and stop firms from having to become more creative to hire more U.S.-based workers.
“Should these programs exist at all? In most instances the answer is no,” he told CNN.
