WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla TSLA.O and SpaceX, vowed to go to "war" to defend the H-1B visa program for foreign tech workers late on Friday amid a dispute between President-elect Donald Trump's longtime supporters and his most recently acquired backers from the tech industry.

Trump administration adviser Elon Musk angered MAGA supporters with his approval of a social media post sarcastically explaining that immigrants are needed for tech jobs because U.S. workers aren’t qualified enough.

Tech Right feud that kicked off over Christmas, spurred by a divide on allowing skilled immigrant workers to come stateside, was escalated by Elon Musk on Thursday. Trump’s “first buddy” declared far-right characters including former Trump orbiter Laura Loomer to be trolls and allegedly removed their verification status on Twitter.

The backlash escalated Thursday, when Vivek Ramaswamy, in a post on X, criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”