Washington Post contrasts the episode with the South African multibillionaire\u2019s anti-immigration views<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elon Musk<\/a> 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\u2019s anti-immigration views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, who has in recent weeks supported Donald Trump\u2019s campaign for a second presidency while promoting the Republican White House nominee\u2019s opposition to \u201copen borders\u201d on his X social media site, has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a \u201clegal grey area\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Washington Post reported<\/a> Saturday that the world\u2019s wealthiest individual<\/a> 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 <\/strong>$300m four years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal experts said foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company even if they are not getting paid. The Post<\/a> also noted that \u2013 prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks agains the US in 2001 \u2013 regulation for student visas was more lax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you\u2019re in trouble,\u201d Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Post also acknowledged: \u201cWhile overstaying a student visa is somewhat common and officials have at times turned a blind eye to it, it remains illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk has previously said: \u201cI was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk employs 121,000 people at Tesla, about 13,000 at SpaceX and nearly 3,000 at X. The scrutiny of his immigration status after dropping out of Stanford comes after Trump has touted his desire for Musk to play a high-profile role focused on government efficiency in a second Trump administration if voters return him to office at the expense of Kamala Harris in the 5 November election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk in turn has accused the vice-president and her fellow Democrats of \u201cimporting voters\u201d through illegal and temporary protected status immigration. During a recent Trump campaign appearance, he compared the US-Mexico border to a \u201czombie apocalypse\u201d \u2013 even as he had also previously described himself as<\/a> \u201cextremely pro immigrant, being one myself\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bloomberg News<\/a> recently published an analysis of more than 53,000 posts sent from Musk\u2019s X account, finding that the entrepreneur\u2019s output turned increasingly political this election year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 2024, immigration and voter fraud has become Musk\u2019s most frequently posted and engaged with policy topic, garnering about 10bn views,\u201d the outlet said. \u201cMusk posted more than 1,300 times about the topic overall, with more than 330 posts in the past 2 months alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bloomberg described Musk \u2013 who paid $44bn for X, then Twitter, in 2022 \u2013 as the platform\u2019s single most important influencer and has reportedly ordered<\/a> site engineers to push his posts into users\u2019 feeds. That makes Musk \u201cthe most widely read person on the site today\u201d, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n