The backlash escalated Thursday, when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

The battle playing out on X, the MAGA public square, has gone viral and turned personal over Musk's describing US workers as not 'super motivated'

The rift laid bare the tensions between wealthy members of the tech world – including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers – and people in President-elect Trump’s MAGA base who championed his hard-line immigration policies.