Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had a bizarre day.
On Thursday morning, Vice President JD Vance hosted a press conference to announce that the US would suspend a major visa program for Microsoft’s workers.
Though several tech companies were targeted, Vance called out Microsoft by name, alleging that “no company in the United States” abused the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM) worse.
“If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one-and-a-half foreign indentured servants,” Vance said. “Now that is a scandalous system that we’ve allowed in this country for far too long.”
Huge banners behind the veep declared “PROTECTING AMERICAN WORKERS” and “FIGHTING VISA FRAUD.”
But hours later, Trump was singing Nadella’s praises.
At a White House event honoring “a new golden age” for science, Nadella walked up to the president — whose administration had just accused his company of visa fraud, mind you — and received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
“For more than three decades, Satya Nadella has been a key figure in the transformation of Microsoft — revolutionizing the company and empowering businesses, students, and consumers from all over the world with some of the most capable software ever built or ever even conceived,” Trump said at the event, before the two posed for a photo op.
Nadella, for his part, thanked Trump for the “incredible honor” in an X post, which didn’t mention Vance’s accusations. A Microsoft blog post shared by a spokesperson to Business Insider said 80% of the company’s roughly 6,000 H-1B visa applications were for existing employees, not new hires.
“Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category,” the company wrote. It also said the “vast majority of Microsoft employees in the United States are Americans.”
Thursday’s awkwardness was the latest example of Trump putting business leaders in tricky situations as he takes a far more active role in business dealings than his presidential predecessors.
Trump has used his executive influence to encourage business leaders to back a variety of his initiatives, like his Trump Account savings program for American children. At the same time, he’s lashed out at opposition, including on Thursday when he said that anyone who wasn’t on board with his official declaration to rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” would be considered an “enemy” of the White House.
