President Joe Biden called Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a Trump supporter, a hypocrite. The reason? According to the president, the billionaire supports Trump’s anti-immigration policies but began his long career in the United States as an “illegal worker” before becoming the richest man in the world.
The comments from Biden about Musk come after the publication of a report by The Washington Post that cites correspondence, legal records, and statements from several people who helped Musk obtain a work visa in 1996, after he was already working here without one.
Musk, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, arrived in the U.S. on a student visa with the declared intention of pursuing graduate studies at Stanford University in California in the mid-90s. According to the newspaper, he did not enroll in the program he claimed to have been accepted into and instead began building a startup called Zip2 with his brother.
The Washington Post reported that investors in Musk’s first company were concerned about a potential “‘deportation of the founder’ and gave him a deadline to obtain a work visa.”
Zip2 was sold for about $300 million in 1999, allowing Elon Musk to become one of the first investors and president of Tesla, and to start his aerospace venture SpaceX.
The success of these companies led Musk to become the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, the Tesla CEO’s net worth is around $274 billion today.
At the end of 2022, Musk used this considerable wealth to acquire the social network Twitter, which he began calling X, in a $44 billion purchase.
On his platform, Musk has repeatedly stated that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are somehow harming the United States.
He has also shared the false claim that non-citizens are systematically voting in U.S. elections, a conspiracy theory put forth by conservative groups to establish a legal basis for contesting election results if the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, wins the presidency.
In the U.S., it is a federal crime for non-citizens to register or vote in federal elections.
According to studies compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, “extensive research reveals that this type of fraud is very rare and many cases of alleged fraud are, in fact, voter or administrator errors.
Elon Musk stated that the student visa he had when he arrived in the country allowed him to work.
Source: CNBC