A perceived shift in Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric, which saw him defending the need for skilled foreign workers, has been clarified by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Trump’s comments that the US needs “to bring talent into the country” and that Americans “don’t have certain talents” for technical jobs had led to speculation that his administration might be easing its H-1B visa restrictions.
Bessent, however, has dismissed this interpretation. He explained that the president’s remarks were not about filling jobs, but about addressing a critical skills gap in the American workforce. The new policy being formulated is not about replacement but about “knowledge transfer,” aiming to use foreign expertise as a temporary tool to upskill American citizens.
The policy, summed up by Bessent, is “Come to US, train American workers, go home.” This framework would allow skilled experts in fields like semiconductor manufacturing and shipbuilding—industries Bessent noted the US has neglected—to come to the country for a limited time. “I think the president’s vision here is to bring in overseas workers who have the skills for three, five, seven years to train the US workers,” Bessent said.
He directly addressed concerns about these workers taking jobs from Americans. “An American can’t have that job, not yet,” Bessent stated, highlighting the current reality of the skills deficit. He stressed that the long-term unemployed cannot simply be placed in highly technical defense and manufacturing roles without extensive, specialized training, which is where the foreign experts come in.
The vision, described by Bessent as a “home run,” is to have these “overseas partners” fulfill their role as trainers and then “return home.” This strategic use of skilled immigrants is designed to ensure that after a few years, the US workforce will be fully capable of handling these high-tech jobs independently, effectively closing the skills gap and strengthening domestic industry.