Elon Musk Holds an Important White House Office, but Is He Actually a U.S. Citizen?

If you've listened to any of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's curiously joint press conferences, you might have noticed that Elon has an accent that comes and goes. And it has left many wondering if Elon Musk is a U.S. citizen. He has never been shy about sharing where he was born and where he comes from, which is South Africa.

But when it comes down to Elon's legal standing as a legal or illegal U.S. citizen, what's the verdict? He stood by Trump's decisions regarding birthright citizenship and individuals who entered the U.S. from other countries and took up residence there. But what is Elon's background in becoming, or not becoming, a U.S. citizen?

Elon moved from South Africa to the U.S. in 1995. At the time, he attended Stanford University. And he later started the company Zip2 with his brother. Whether or not he had always intended to stay in the U.S., Elon took up permanent residence in the country where he gained his education and started what would be his lifelong career in business and technology.

According to NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Elon became a U.S. citizen almost 10 years after he arrived in the U.S., in 2002. But, despite his business prowess and skills that helped him become a billionaire in his own right in 2012, he came from wealth in South Africa. He grew up with a model for a mother and a successful engineer for a father.

According to the Constitution:

"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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

While Elon originally moved to the U.S. on a student visa, he later applied for other visas to remain in the country. Early on, Elon reportedly worked in the U.S. without legal authorization to do so. He later obtained an HB-5 visa, which is an immigrant investor visa. And then, in 2002, Elon became an American citizen.

Even before Trump took office for his second term, critics of his agenda, and of his Cabinet in general, jokingly referred to Elon as "President Musk," given what appeared to be his control over some of the big decisions that were being made. Since Elon is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, he cannot run for president. And in December 2024, Trump said as much about his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader.

"He's not gonna be president, that I can tell you," Trump said at a press conference at the time. "You know why he can't be? He wasn't born in this country."

Despite that, critics of Trump's second term have been quick to poke fun at the way Elon appears in the Oval Office almost as much as the sitting president does. Going by what the Constitution says, however, that's the closest Elon will get to actually sitting behind the presidential desk.