Could Elon Musk run for president, given that he was not born in the US? Here’s what the law says

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and owner of X, has announced plans to form a new political party in the US called the America Party. He aims to challenge what he views as a uni-party system in Washington and has pledged to target districts represented by Republicans who supported the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’—a sweeping legislative package passed by both chambers of Congress last week and signed into law on the Fourth of July. If Musk follows through, he’ll face an uphill battle: all but two of the 220 GOP Representatives in the House voted in favor of the bill.

What offices could Musk run for?

With Musk planning to create his own political party, many wonder if he could run for office himself. But could he run for president?

No. Elon Musk cannot be the President of the United States, given that the US Constitution makes clear that to be eligible, one must be born in the country. A person who becomes a naturalized US citizen cannot hold the office of Vice President either.

Nevertheless, all other public offices are available, and in recent memory, the country has seen immigrants hold high offices. Examples include former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, as well as Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000 but was born in Somalia.

Barring a change to the Constitution, which would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states, Musk and other naturalized US citizens will continue to be ineligible to hold the two highest offices in the country.

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