Vice President JD Vance has said the U.S. should “empower” blue-collar workers already in the country rather than replace them with foreign labor – despite President Donald Trump insisting that the nation needs to “bring in talent”.
In his interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Thursday, Vance offered a message that appeared to diverge from Trump’s recent remarks on foreign labor — even as he framed his position as aligned with the president’s economic vision.
Vance argued that the U.S. should avoid relying on additional foreign workers and instead focus on using technology to “empower the blue-collar workers” already in the country.
“Their (the Democrat’s) idea was the way that we get more prosperity is that you import more and more low-wage servants and that actually I think reduced prosperity, because it meant that a lot of our blue-collar workers were struggling,” he said.
“But if you use technology and you empower the blue-collar workers rather than replace them with foreign labor, I think they are going to do way better, they are going to make higher wages and the whole country is going to be better off.
“In other words, do you depend on low-wage immigrants or do you depend on American citizens bolstered by technology and innovation? That’s the Trump model.”
But Vance’s framing followed Trump’s own comments on Fox News earlier this week. During an interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump defended the need for H-1B visas, insisting the U.S. “has to bring in talent.” When Ingraham asked whether the country lacked qualified American workers, Trump replied: “No, you don’t.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.