Elon Musk’s influence over US government policy continues to grow. (Getty)
Don’t worry everyone, Elon Musk can’t become President under current US law, and we can all breath a sigh of relief.
Growing fears that the tech billionaire was vying for the top spot of the US government have become increasingly prevalent following president-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint him to the cabinet.
The 53-year-old Tesla and X owner, who has become recently infamous for reams of controversial posts on his X account, has been ear-marked by Trump to head the newly-created US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), named after his favourite cryptocurrency.
His influence in Republican policy had become so significant that Trump was forced to dispel rumours that the CEO could, in future, become President.
“No, he’s not going to be President, that I can tell you,” Trump said at a Sunday (22 December) speech in Phoenix, Arizona. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
The 78-year-old’s claim is in fact true: The US Constitution outlines requirements for a person to run for president, and one of them is that they must have be born on US soil.
According to Snopes, Article II, section 1, Clause 5 of the US Constitution states that no person “except a natural-born citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”
The clause also states that any person younger than 35 cannot run for the office of president, as well as US citizens who have not lived in the US for more than fourteen years.
Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa, to the incredibly wealthy Maye and Errol Musk. Elon has a brother, a sister, and four paternal half-siblings.
His grandfather, Joshua N Haldeman, was American-born but later travelled to Africa and Australia with his family.
As relieving as it is that Musk couldn’t reach the Office of the President, the tech billionaire still could be elected as speaker of the House, which theoretically puts him second-in-line for the presidency after the vice president.
However, Snopes also clarified that the US Constitution’s criteria for the presidency still apply, meaning that the House speaker would be skipped over in the line of succession.
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