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Topline Billionaire Elon Musk, who has become a staunch opponent of illegal immigration as a top surrogate for Donald Trump, and boosted misleading claims about the issue throughout the 2024 election cycle, launched his career in Silicon Valley working illegally, according to The Washington Post . Key Facts Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts : We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here.
Forbes Valuation Musk is now worth an estimated $274.7 billion , making him the world’s wealthiest person. Big Number 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. Crucial Quote “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.” Tangent Musk has said he is “ extremely pro-immigrant ” and advocated for the U.S.
to expand its immigration system so that it could “let anyone in...
who is hardworking and honest and will be a contributor.” Key Background Musk’s spreading of misinformation has flourished on X, where many of his immigration and his voter fraud posts (about 70%) are short replies that have largely boosted or implicitly supported misleading conspiracy theories, according to Bloomberg .The tech billionaire’s increase of immigration and voter fraud posts coincides with the nearing of Election Day and his support and endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Musk has echoed Trump’s misleading claims that Democrats are trying to provide illegal immigrants with the right to vote, claiming early this year “the Dems will import and legalize enough migrants to ensure a permanent-one party rule that is increasingly socialist (to a confiscatory level) and repressive.” Despite concern around non-citizens voting illegally, studies have found attempts to vote illegally are rare. Musk has also extended his anti-immigration stance to other countries, suggesting last year a German humanitarian group conducting a rescue operation of immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea was violating the sovereignty of Italy , where the rescued immigrants were released.
Further Reading Musk Echoes Right Wing Claims On Immigration As Bipartisan Senate Bill Finally Released: What To Know (Forbes) Elon Musk Attacks Germany Over Its Migrant Rescues, Cites ‘Invasion Vibes’ (Forbes).
