President Donald Trump honored Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, even as his administration escalated its criticism of the company’s use of foreign labor.
Earlier the same day, Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft was being suspended from a program that allows companies to apply for green cards for skilled foreign workers with H-1B visas. Vance said the company had abused the visa system.
'Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,' Vance said at a news conference. 'You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.'
Vance said Microsoft fired 6,000 U.S. workers last year but also obtained 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, said in a statement that the majority of its H-1B visa applications last fiscal year were 'to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.'
Trump did not mention the visa dispute during the medal ceremony. He praised Nadella for more than three decades of work at Microsoft, saying he had been 'a key figure in the transformation of Microsoft' and had empowered businesses, students and consumers around the world.
The president also gave the National Medal of Science to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su. Each was born overseas. In addition to Nadella, Trump gave the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, who was born in Texas.
Trump called the group of billionaires 'national treasures' and said, 'Such a big day in the world of science and the world of technology — this is the biggest day there is.' He said the honorees would 'go down in the annals of history as being great.'
The ceremony highlighted a tension at the center of Trump’s economic agenda: the administration wants American growth to keep accelerating, but it is also moving to restrict the foreign-worker pipeline that has long served major technology companies.
The numbers come first. Microsoft has 223,000 employees worldwide, and Vance said the company fired 6,000 U.S. workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. That is the kind of policy collision Washington creates when it tries to micromanage labor, immigration and innovation at the same time.
Capital rewards clear rules. The White House wants the U.S. to lead in artificial intelligence and preserve growth, but it is also signaling that firms must prove they are hiring Americans first. For free enterprise, the test is whether Washington can defend workers without choking off the talent that builds the next generation of American industry.
