1 yr. ago • 55%

What if Musk ran for president?

This occurred to me the other day and I feel like it’s so crazy that it maybe could happen. Is it too late for him to run in the upcoming election?

45 comments

He was not born in the US, and is therefore ineligible for office.

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- You have to admit though that after all of the Obama birther bullshit, it would perfectly round out the Gaslight Obstruct and Project gameplan.
  
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  If they don't manage to tick every box oh well, pobody's nerfect.
  
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  Also for all their fussing about Obama not being born in the US (even though he was), their guy, John McCain actually wasn't born in the US, but in Panama. McCain was still considered a natural-born citizen because of an act of congress which stated:
  
  And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens.
  
  Which would also presumably cover Obama even if he wasn't born in the US, since one of his parents is American.
  
  Also Mitt Romney's father was born in Mexico but was allowed to run for president in 1968 for the same reason.
  
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- Oh I didn’t know that! Good call.
  
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  I used to think it was a bad rule. Now I see.
  
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- @Gradually_Adjusting Let's be honest, if non-natural born US citizens could be president, there's a non-szero chance we would have seen President Schwarzenegger more than decade ago.
  I love Arrnie, fon't get me wrong, but electing popular figures rarely goes well (lloking at you, Reagan)
  
  @anarchoplayworker
  
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  Looking at you, Trump.
  
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- Not strictly necessary. If his parents were US citizens--and they aren't--then it wouldn't matter where he was born. Kind of. I think that there might be residency requirements for children of US citizens that are born abroad, e.g., if your parents are expats and you live all your life in another country, you might not be a citizen, but it's complicated. You'd def. want to contact an immigration attorney if that was the case.
  
  BUT...!
  
  The point is that Musk, since he wasn't born to US citizens, and since he wasn't born in the US, isn't eligible to run for president.
  
  It's an open question as to what happens if he ran anyways, and how votes would be tabulated, etc. It would get messy, but I don't think that it's ever happened that someone ineligible has run for president and won any significant amount of the vote.
  
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- Wow, didn't actually know this, good info 👍.
  
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- Neither was Ted Cruz, but he still ran in the primary.
  
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  How embarrassing for him.
  
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- Thank the lord for him not being able to run
  
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- Right-wingers do. Buying Twitter exposed him as a terrible business man who could only be considered a genius by Trump standards. Luckily for him, many Twitter users do think Trump is a business-savvy genius!! He has an even bigger following now because he isn't pandering to tech nerds who are genuinely interested in what he's doing with his tech companies. Now he's targeting the alt-right with conspiracy theories, Hunter Biden's ~~dick pics~~ laptop, and "free speech" (for only $11/month!).
  
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  “free speech” (for only $11/month!).
  
  Assuming he doesn't disagree with anything you say, of course. Or your flight data doesn't hurt his little fee-fees.
  
  It's hilarious how much of a clown that guy turned into after seeming vaguely accomplished and sane for five whole minutes.
  
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Don't give more billionaires this idea.

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- Too late, they saw how successful it was for Trump.
  
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Not a natural born American Citizen, not that the constitution means anything anymore but we at least pay lip service to it sometimes and that's part of it.

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  "Natural born" is key. You have to have been born there or at least have been born to American parents.
  
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  Clearly you don’t know Elon nor how citizenship works!
  
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Honestly....im fucking here for that. Obviously he would never get elected but holy shit his campaign would be deliciously cringe worthy.

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- That’s what they all said about Trump though too. “Obviously he would never get elected”.
  
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  ...true
  
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- I think the last several years have shown us that idiocy shouldn't be tolerated just because we think it's morbidly entertaining.
  
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- No, they must simply be a natural-born citizen. An American born to American parents is American, no matter where the extraction takes place. Dirt need not enter the equation.
  
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Not born here yep, everytime this pops into my head I think yay! although it would be funny to watch him waste more money because he wouldn't win..

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If he was planning to, helping Ron DeSantis to launch his own campaign would be kind of a weird move

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Trump was (and, fuck, maybe will be again) elected president. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. As of right now, no he can't since he isn't natural born, but hell, it's not impossible to have the constitution amended, just very unlikely.

I remember after Trump was elected, I stopped watching House of Cards (I think this was before Spacey's indiscretions were mainstream public) because reality really became stranger and scarier than fiction.

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