Trump presents national medal to Microsoft CEO after suspending its H-1B visas and alleging 'foreign indentured servants' replaced domestic workers

Donald Trump spent Thursday praising the same tech elite his administration had just put on notice. Hours after Vice President JD Vance accused Microsoft of abusing the visa system, Trump handed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and made no public mention of the hiring fight.

Vance had opened the day with a sharp attack on the company. He said Microsoft was being suspended from a program that lets firms apply for green cards for skilled foreign workers with H-1B visas. He argued the company had laid off American workers and then replaced them with what he called “foreign indentured servants.” Vance also said Microsoft fired 6,000 U.S. workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, says the majority of its H-1B applications last fiscal year were for extensions or status changes for existing employees. The company has 223,000 employees worldwide. That back-and-forth captures the larger tension running through Trump’s tech outreach: he wants the U.S. to lead in artificial intelligence, but he also wants tighter limits on immigration and foreign hiring.

The ceremony itself was stacked with immigrant founders and executives. Trump 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. All four were born overseas. Alongside Nadella, Trump also honored Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, who was born in Texas. Nadella, who came to the U.S. from India, thanked Trump on social media and said he was humbled to stand with other giants of American innovation.

Trump called the group “national treasures” and used the event to lean into his talk of a “golden age” of science. Vance, for his part, said the administration would keep supporting Microsoft and still have a “great relationship” with it. The White House said the recipients are helping America keep leading the world in innovation.