Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa back in 1971. His mother was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa. His father was a native born South African. The family was well to do, although not worth nearly as much as Elon is now--but then no one else on the planet is either, so that's no big deal.
Wikipedia says Elon Musk is a legal citizen of South Africa, Canada, and since 2002, the United States of America. That means he can contribute money to Presidential candidates and vote for them, but he can't be the President of the United States. The Constitution says you can't hold the highest office in the land if you aren't born here--unless you're Ted Cruz, John McCain, or George Romney. All three of those republican candidates for President claimed exceptions to the native born rule. As we know, none of them won, In fact Cruz and Romney couldn't even get nominated. (McCain's argument was probably legitimate. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which was considered U.S. territory at the time. Cruz was born in Canada, although his mother was American, while Romney was born in Mexico to American ex-pat citizens.)
Oddly though, thanks to a quirky House of Representatives rule, Brother Musk can become the United States Speaker of the House. He doesn't even need to be an elected Congressman to do it either. House MAGA savants have talked about pulling this sort of move before. A couple of years ago they floated the idea of nominating Donald Trump himself for the spot. Now a couple have mentioned Musk's name. It is a far fetched idea, but these days a lot of far fetched ideas are now playing out right in front of us. You know, like a former heroine junkie/brain diseased/anti-vaxxer being named head of Health and Human Services. So you can never say never in the 21st century.
If, by some twisted moment of unlikely fate that were to happen, Elon Musk, U.S. House Speaker would become third in line for the office of President. That's right, if something were to happen to both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance the Speaker assumes the Presidency--an office Elon Musk constitutionally, can't be elected to.
Such a scenario will never happen though. Donald Trump might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he will never let Musk that close to real political power. We were guaranteed that last week.
The moment came when the South African billionaire single handedly killed a bi-partisan budget bill, apparently for no reason other than he could. The bill was one of those stop gap things the nation has grown so used to over the years meant to avert a Christmas season shut down of the government. Current Speaker, Mike Johnson was in on it, as was a majority of republicans and democrats. Trump even seemed ready to let it slide. Then Elon Musk took to social media with a blizzard of over 100 posts. According to media reports meany of them were mis-leading and false--which is how the press describes outright lies these days. Many also threatened GOP lawmakers with election doom if they voted for the measure.
Musk's millions of followers were enraged. Phones began to ring in Congressional offices. Then, a few hours later, both Vance and Trump announced they wanted the bill killed also. Chaos ensued. Johnson and others cobbled together another budget deal and it passed in the nick of time. Meanwhile democrats and left leaning media members began talking about, a President Musk, a co-Presidency shared between Trump and the billionaire puppet master, and Trump's total dependence on his sugar daddy.
With those insults to Donald Trump's massive yet fragile ego, any ambitions Elon Musk might have had for true political power went down the drain. Yes, Trump may take his advice and he will certainly continue to take his money, but the Musk Man will never be anything more than the MAGA banker from this second forward.
On Sunday the President-elect spoke about Elon Musk to a Turning Point USA crowd, "...no, he's not going to the President that much I can tell you. And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be. He wasn't born in this country." In other words, There is only room at the top of this Kleptocracy for one person and that guy is me.
Trump will, no doubt, keep Musk around running the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency. After all, the man did kick in a reported $250 million to the campaign. Besides Musk has a vested interest in how the feds spend taxpayer money. Tesla is heavily subsidized by the government and Space X is making millions, if not billions through NASA contracts. Someone has to make sure those spigots keep flowing. And, if we have to gut agencies like the FDIC in order to do it, then someone with millions of social media followers is best suited to lead the charge.
That's it though. Donald Trump isn't going to stand for any more talk of puppet masters and shadow Presidents. Not only is he emotionally incapable of it, but he knows this is the last and greatest grift of his life and by God he isn't going to share it with anyone.
Ultimately Elon Musk's power play worked too quickly and too well. He may have fucked Congress, but by doing so he proved himself a threat to Donald Trump's chemistry with the MAGA base. And that, as everyone knows, is a threat he cannot tolerate.
Elon, my boy, you screwed the pooch, you peaked too soon--a full month before the real Big Grab even begins.
Sic Vita Est
12-23-24
Musk overplayed his hand. It doesn't matter how much he donated to the cause, you cannot upstage a boss like Trump and get away with it, even if you are the richest man in the world. However . . . the richest man in the world is like the 900 pound gorilla in the corner, he doesn't go completly away unless he wants to.
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