Washington Post contrasts the episode with the South African multibillionaire’s anti-immigration views

Washington Post contrasts the episode with the South African multibillionaire’s anti-immigration views

Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire’s anti-immigration views.

The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who has in recent weeks supported Donald Trump’s campaign for a second presidency while promoting the Republican White House nominee’s opposition to “open borders” on his X social media site, has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a “legal grey area”.

But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world’s wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later.

  • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
    34·
    9 days ago

    What’s absolutely hilarious is that this news made the rounds on twitter 3 years ago.

    This has been known for a long time before that.

    Yet with barely a week left to the election, being a national security issue on many fronts, and a few conversations with Putin later, it is finally being reported.

    Absolute farce.

    Deport or eat the fucker and the billionaire “free press” owners.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      101·
      10 days ago

      It’s okay to be here illegally if you’re above a certain level on the brownness/pinkness scale.

      • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        Born here but brown while my wife is blond but Swedish.

        Fucking southerners, if Jesus came back right then they’d be less shocked. It’s like it’s impossible for me to have a more American accent than her or them (northeast/Californian), it just makes no sense.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      9 days ago

      Actually technically he committed a felony, lying on federal forms (they specifically ask you).

      So lock him up, then deport him.

  • SeattleRain@lemmy.worldEnglish
    264·
    9 days ago

    It’s okay for whites to do it. We are a white supremacist country after all. Before a bunch of liberal get their panties in a bunch we literally jail the most people on the planet. We practice de facto Jim Crow but just call it drug enforcement and other flimsy pretextes.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      121·
      9 days ago

      “You’re not supposed to go around saying that we’re ‘white supremacist’, it de-legitimises our white supremacy!”

  • bamfic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    10 days ago

    Now the wapo starts doing journalism that exposes the crimes a billionaire, after getting pressured by the rival billionaire who owns them not to endorse a non-criminal and non-rapist for president? Trying to win back the people who cancelled their subscriptions?

    • vxx@lemmy.world
      4·
      9 days ago

      Nah, Bezos would take every chance to shit on competing billionaires. He wants to be number one.

      Bezos wants his dick rockets to succeed or something, and his ego is bigger than trump and tax credits.

      I wonder how Bezos isn’t staunchly anti trump since musk got offered a job that takes control over bezos companies.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
        2·
        9 days ago

        Because the democrats have been giving the FTC and Unions more teeth lately. And Harris is pointing towards tax hikes on Bezos. So, both Trump and Harris are bad from Bezos point of view.

  • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
    214·
    10 days ago

    I’d wager that many tens of thousands of people are also in this situation. For example, Kim Petras (German pop artist) also stayed illegally in the US after one of her visas expired. I dislike Musk, but I don’t really know if this headline is actually worth giving a shit about. Then again, I am not American. Thoughts?

    • Chozo@fedia.io
      22·
      10 days ago

      I believe that expired visas are still the most common cause of illegal immigration in the US. Most immigrants end up getting here completely legally, and for one reason or another some will stay past their visa expiration (often due to the renewal process getting hung up in the system for extended periods).

      However, it’s newsworthy because of Musk’s rampant anti-immigration rhetoric, even though he knowingly lived and worked in the US illegally, himself. He doesn’t mind breaking the rules and profiting from it, but wants to stop anybody else from following him.

      • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
        5·
        10 days ago

        At this point, anyone who doesn’t think Elon Musk is a hypocrite will never change their mind. But if you guys like these types of stories, keep reading them. I just think he’s already proven who he is.

    • dan@upvote.au
      8·
      10 days ago

      illegally in the US after one of her visas expired.

      Just to clarify: A visa just determines the time period when you can enter the USA. How long you can stay in the USA is determined by the I-94 (a form that’s issued upon arrival), not the visa.

      It’s possible for the I-94 expiration date to be later than the visa expiration date, which means you can still stay in the USA after the visa expires (until the I-94 expires), but you just won’t be able to leave and re-enter without renewing the visa.

      • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
        4·
        10 days ago

        Ah, thanks for the info. In this case specifically she did say she was no longer allowed to remain in the US and continued to do so despite that, so I feel safe in assuming that the I-94 expiration date had passed.

        • dan@upvote.au
          9·
          10 days ago

          Yeah, definitely. I just wanted to clarify since it’s a common point of confusion even for people that are currently on visas. My wife and I got a green card a few years ago so I’m glad I don’t have to deal with visas any more.