‘Train us, then go home,’ says Scott Bessent: Trump’s H-1B pivot and what it reveals about America’s skills gap

When a political message begins sounding like a coordinated duet, it usually means someone has been practising — and in this case, the rehearsal seems to have taken place in the Fox News studios. First came President Donald Trump, telling Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle that America does not, in fact, have all the talent it claims. Confronted with the argument that the US has “plenty of skilled workers,” he cut her off: “No, you don’t… you don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn. ” It was classic Trump: Blunt, unscripted, and inconveniently revealing. A day later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on Fox News with a remarkably complementary explanation. The President’s vision, he said, is to bring in overseas workers “with the skills,” let them train America