Elon Musk – the world’s richest man who hails from Pretoria – has been praised by Americans for “saving” their country after using his money and influence to back Donald Trump.
The Republican representative officially declared victory in the 2024 presidential elections after winning close to 270 electoral votes. His opponent, Kamala Harris, has yet to concede.
And many believe Elon’s use of the X app – which he owns – has much to do with Trump’s victory.
ELON MUSK PRAISED FOR ‘SAVING DEMOCRACY’
On the X app, Elon Musk – who is proudly pro-Donald Trump – has been posing meme after meme about the election results.
The Pretoria-born businessman acquired the social media platform in 2022. After taking over the app, Elon lifted a ban imposed on Donald Trump a year earlier over fears his tweets would incite violence.
He told Rogan: “I bought it because I’m pretty attuned since I was the most interacted with user on Twitter before the acquisition.
“So I was very attuned to if they change the system, I can tell immediately. And I’m like, ‘Something weird is going on here.’ I just got increasingly uneasy. And obviously, when they de-platformed a sitting president, that was, that was just insane.”
WORLD’S RICHEST MAN WAS NOT BORN IN THE US
Despite publicly supporting the US’s newly elected president, Elon Musk was not born in the country.
He obtained naturalised citizenship in 2002. Elon left SA in 1989 at the age of 18 to move to Canada, his mother Maye Musk’s country of birth.
He moved to the US in 1995 to pursue his studies. The Pretoria-born man then went on to establish several lucrative businesses in his adoptive country, including Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal, and the Boring Company.
Elon – who also has Canadian citizenship – has often identified himself as “American.”
