We all know lots of stuff about Elon Musk. More than we’d care to at least in my case. That’s another way in which he’s like his pal Trump. Still, it’s worth remembering Musk was born in South Africa and didn’t immigrate to Canada (for college) until he was 17. However Musk didn’t go to college in Canada and instead obtained a student Visa to study at Stanford. Except he dropped out after a couple of days so he could work with his brother on a start-up business. The problem with THAT is that by dropping out of school Musk invalidated his student Visa meaning he was in the U.S. illegally. Bluntly put, in the years Musk was creating his first business (with his brother) he was an Illegal Immigrant!
Given all that he’s saying now, hypocritical doesn’t begin to cover Musk taking advantage of the system back when he was younger. Look, countless students have become “illegals” by overstaying their Visas, or dropping out of school. Prior to 9/11 it was much more common than people think. Things have tightened up considerably on that but the fact remains Musk and others like him were illegal immigrants. In Musk’s case he was pretty much from the start.
As this article from Forbes indicates Musk dropped out of a Stanford University graduate program in 1995 to work on his start-up. Citing a Washington Post article (it’s hidden behind a paywall) Forbes describes how The Post investigated business associates, court records and company documents. It all added up to the conclusion Musk didn’t legally have the right to work in this country while creating Zip2. You may not have heard of it (it was after all decades ago) but Zip-2 was business directory software company – that sold for about $300 million bucks 25 years ago. From there Musk went on to bigger and far more lucrative things as you know. However, during those Zip-2 years there were concerns:
Musk’s immigration status put the company at risk of not receiving funding, according to the Post, which cited a funding agreement between Zip2 and Mohr Davidow Ventures that Musk, his brother Kimbal and an associate, had 45 days to secure legal work status or face losing out on the $3 million investment.
Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became the company’s chief executive, told the Post that Zip2 investors did not want its founder deported, and that the Musk brothers’ “immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.”
Forbes, not exactly a bastion of progressive reporting softens things when talking about an email (public due to a lawsuit) to Tesla co-founders ‘acknowledged’ some immigration ‘issues’ saying Musk explained he ‘applied to Stanford to remain in the U.S. legally.’ However Musk knew that by dropping out (again, a couple of days after the start of his first term) his Visa was invalid. Basically he LIED to get Tesla (and other businesses) off the ground about how he’d gotten started in this country.
It’s worth asking how the hell this guy, having lied for years ever got citizenship. Also, as another article from EurWeb.com reports Musk engaged in some of the same things he, Trump and other anti-immigrants harp about. Getting a driver’s license and insurance for example. As does the Forbes article I linked to EurWeb makes note of the pressure Musk and his brother got to resolve their immigration status within a prescribed time-frame. It too cites the same quote in the block above from Derek Proudian about the board saying “We don’t want our founder being deported.” You’re damned right Musk knew he was breaking immigration law!
Yet we now have to put up with Musk running around the country, and using twitter/X to harp on “Illegal Immigration.” This, despite a quote from Musk’s brother Kimball (with Musk trying to muddy things) back in 2013 according to the Forbes article:
“When they did fund us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants,” Kimbal said in a 2013 panel discussion alongside his brother. Elon attempted to interject before Kimbal again insisted the two brothers were immigrants during the early days of Zip2. Elon replied, “I’d say it was a gray area.”
Of course it was a sensitive topic. It’s the kind of thing that would get some ordinary person, even one with advanced degrees and experience from getting a top level security clearance. Musk of course has, due to all those govt. contracts long had one. Much as I hate to admit it it’s not because he’s become a Trump pal. It’s because he became insanely RICH and we all know there are two sets of laws/rules – one for the very rich and one for the rest of us ‘little people.’ That sucks and is of course wrong on so many levels but Musk now is in a special (I don’t mean that in a good way) category. He’s by far the world’s richest person, does lots of business in multiple countries and not all are friendly to the U.S. And he has critical defense and space contracts with the U.S. government.
He also personally owns and controls the world’s largest and most widely used communications platform! Sure, he’s made a mess of it starting from paying way more than it was worth. However he spent all that money because he wanted total control of such a huge information platform. People were right to be concerned about what he might do with it, and at the moment we are seeing him using it to hammer the issue on which Trump is hanging his hat in his bid to be re-elected – ‘Illegal Immigration.’ From Forbes:
1,300. That is how many times Musk has posted about immigration and voter fraud this year, 330 posts of which were made in the past two months, according to Bloomberg Technology, which noted the topics have become Musk’s most frequent and most engaged-with posts.
Again, to be clear Musk hasn’t gotten away with all this because he’s become pals with Trump. He’s gotten away with it because he’s long been insanely, filthy stinking RICH. This really should be getting more attention from major news outlets than it’s gotten or is likely to get. Well, hopefully those who have read this will share it with others. News outlets got hinky over criticism from conservatives decades ago. Now they are cowering in fear over the prospects of another Trump Presidency. So, it’s up to us to spread the word. Somehow I doubt Musk will allow his precious twitter to be used to spread it!
Muskrat is such a pos – always has been, always will be. Just like his buddy the orange menace. He’s now buying, in conjunction with china, Russia, etc, a United States election. God save us. I’m still looking for a way out. I’ll find it. I will. I won’t put up with another trump residency.
DEPORT THE MUSKRAT NOW!
seems to me that citizenship earned illegally ought to be revoked. You reading this melania?
If they didn’t have hypocrisy they’d have no moral values at all.
Does he pay child support? It would be sweet to see him.jailed Gor not paying it. Or getting nailed for tax issues.
You’ll never get anywhere in life by following the rules …..
The Muskrat has spoken