WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday sided with key supporter and billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters.

Trump's remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late on Friday to go to "war" to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.

Trump, who moved to limit the visas' use during his first presidency, told The New York Post on Saturday he was in favor of the visa program.

"I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program," he was quoted as saying.

Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three years, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.

The altercation was set off earlier last week by far-right activists who criticized Trump's selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence, saying he would have influence on the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Skilled immigrants

Musk's tweet was directed at Trump's supporters and immigration hard-liners who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas.

On Friday, Steve Bannon, a Trump strategist, criticized "big tech oligarchs" for supporting the H-1B program and cast immigration as a threat to Western civilization.

In response, Musk and other tech billionaires drew a line between what they view as legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Trump's insistent calls for sharp curbs on immigration were central to his election victory last month over Vice-President Kamala Harris. Trump has vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants and limit legal immigration.

But tech leaders such as Musk — as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who is set to co-chair a government cost-cutting panel with Musk — say the United States produces too few highly skilled graduates, and they fervently champion the H-1B program.

The US tech industry relies on the government's H-1B visa program to hire foreign skilled workers to help run its companies, a labor force that critics say undercuts wages for US citizens.

Agencies Via Xinhua