A 'loophole' could potentially allow Elon Musk to run for United States president following Donald Trump's upcoming term, despite the fact that the billionaire tech mogul was born in South Africa.
Elon Musk has become keenly involved in politics in the last six months especially, having played a key role in president-elect Donald Trump's November election victory.
His own mother has revealed that the pair are near inseparable since Musk donated over $118,000,000 to Trump's campaign, and that has left him rewarded with a shared position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
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This private advisory board will aim to cut federal spending and, as the name suggests, make America more 'efficient' as a result.
Musk himself has pledged to achieve over $2,000,000,000 in cuts to the government's $6.75 trillion budget, despite then claiming afterwards that this figure was unsustainable, and he also won't take a wage during the department's two-year tenure.
On top of this, Musk has already shown his political influence before Trump has even entered office, having led the charge for amendments to a key bipartisan US budget that would have seen the government shut down and funding for key children's cancer initiatives removed.
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Musk has also shown how keen he is to engage in foreign policy too, having orchestrated a social media tirade against the UK government over grooming gang cases that resulted in an alleged threat of invasion, and has also previously hinted at financial support for the Reform UK political party.
This has then led many to consider not only whether Elon Musk would be drawn to the prospect of running for US president, but also whether he'd actually be eligible in the first place.
Official ruling states that you need to be born in the United States in order to run for president, yet a loophole that has previously been exploited by the Republican Party could potentially assist Musk if he did wish to push for the position.
John McCain famously defied this rule in his 2008 Republican campaign against Barack Obama, as reported by the Independent, as he was born in Panama not America.
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What allowed him to run then was a legal review that outlined McCain's two American parents, and the fact that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone which was under the control of the United States at the time.
While there might be some lawyer that could potentially twist this exemption to favor Musk - and you never know what Trump is capable of during his presidency - the fact that Musk was born in South Africa but neither of his parents are Americans does appear to make the prospect impossible.
He might not even be interested if previous comments are to go by, as per the Economic Times Musk has previously said: "But I actually don't want to be president. I want to build rockets and cars. I believe we want to be a spacefaring civilization, and that's where my focus will remain."
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It's unclear whether the SpaceX CEO has changed his tune since becoming close to Trump. However, some argue that his wealth has managed to buy him enough power to influence politics, indicating that it wouldn't matter if he was officially named president or not.