Image courtesy of @elonmusk from Twitter

By Malavika Pradeep

Published Dec 15, 2022 at 01:17 PM

Reading time: 3 minutes

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If there’s one person who has been gripping headlines for all the wrong reasons since the beginning of 2022, it’s the world’s ex-richest man Elon Musk. Since his $44 billion acquisition of microblogging app Twitter, the business magnate has been mired in controversy—be it promoting QAnon to his 121 million followers, mocking pronouns on the platform he now owns, or literally squatting in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters without paying rent.

Now, as it turns out, the billionaire’s Dogecoin and Wall Street meme-obsessed fanboys want him to run for US president as a side quest for ultimate world domination. Yes, let that sink in.

Although the conversation has been on the down-low ever since the Tesla CEO took over Twitter, it was bumped onto everyone’s timeline on 13 December following @Investments_CEO’s tweet that read: “If Elon Musk ran for president would you vote for him? 🤔”

Amassing over 73,000 likes, the post quickly evolved into an assembly point for his fanboys. “He gets my vote as long as he continues to make decisions based on knowledge, wisdom, and understanding with high regard for the truth and respect for others. He’s the man for the job,” a user replied. “@elonmusk will get my support and vote should he decide to run for any public office; especially the Office of President,” another wrote.

The thread quickly branched into independent tweets as supporters claimed that Musk’s advocacy for free speech essentially made him “worthy” as a potential White House candidate. At the same time, others debated that the billionaire has a “greater purpose” in life rather than kicking “bad guys out of the system.”

Now, it’s worth noting that Musk’s position on the US political spectrum accelerated just months before his Twitter takeover. Back in September 2021, the magnate claimed he preferred to “stay out of politics” while admitting that he believes the government “should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness.”

On the eve of the 2016 election, Musk said he is not a supporter of Donald Trump… before joining the former president’s business advisory council in 2017. Come August 2019, he then threw his support behind Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, given his bid for universal basic income. After denying having voted for Trump in 2020, the billionaire tweeted: “In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.”

In May 2022, he added: “Given unprovoked attacks by leading Democrats against me & a very cold shoulder to Tesla & SpaceX, I intend to vote Republican in November.” In August, he then proceeded to identify as a centrist who supports “the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party!”

Close to the 2022 midterms, Musk once again implored his army of Twitter followers to vote for a Republican Congress. “Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,” he wrote on Twitter. Fast forward to December, it turns out that the CEO didn’t even cast his vote in the said midterms.

Musk’s status as a self-declared “free speech absolutist” has also been called into question in the recent past. In March 2022, a former Tesla employee—who was fired for posting a video that was critical of the company’s controversial autopilot—pointed out that Musk “is a free speech absolutist… unless it involves safety concerns.” It was also revealed that the CEO was known to engage in “yelling matches” with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) while on calls about Tesla’s autopilot feature.

As of December, Musk suspended ElonJet, a bot account created by university student Jack Sweeney that tracked his private flight. And given the billionaire’s stance on the backlash he received during his appearance at Dave Chappelle’s show in San Francisco, it’s safe to say that nobody told Musk booing is free speech too.

Back to Musk’s White House supporters, I really hate to burst your bubble but your “GOAT god” isn’t exactly eligible to become a US President in the first place.

According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the US Constitution, “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” Given the fact that Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, the clause in question makes him constitutionally unfit for the presidency.

Although numerous users have pointed this out in their replies on Twitter, it hasn’t stopped Musk fanboys from declaring their support or fantasising about all the problematic ways they could get him into Office.

“Just identify as a natural born American. Apparently, if you identify as something, people have to accept it,” one tweeted. “He can’t run for president but he can run for Prime Minister of Canada and yes, I would vote for him,” a second claimed, while others heralded him as a future cult leader on Mars. Considering that Musk doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to delivering his promises, maybe you guys should just stick to worshipping the $600,000 monument of the billionaire riding a rocket as a goat.