Elon Musk has said he considers himself to be an American citizen despite being born in South Africa and holding dual citizenship of Canada and the United States. In a post shared on X this morning, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said that he identifies only as American, without using a hyphenated identity.
This declaration comes days after a petition to remove Musk’s Canadian citizenship garnered more than 3 lakh signatures amid growing US-Canada tensions.
Elon Musk’s citizenship
Elon Musk holds dual citizenship of USA and Canada. The Tesla CEO obtained Canadian citizenship at birth through his mother, Maye Musk, who was born in Saskatchewan, Canada. According to CIC News, Musk automatically inherited Canadian citizenship by descent despite being born in South Africa.
Musk moved to Canada at the age of 18 before emigrating to the United States. He became a US citizen in 2002, a decade after moving to the country. Musk had arrived in the United States on a student visa to study at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Simply an American”
Musk seemingly tried to distance himself from his South African ancestry in an X post shared a few hours ago. He completely glossed over his Canadian citizenship in the process.
{{/usCountry}}Musk seemingly tried to distance himself from his South African ancestry in an X post shared a few hours ago. He completely glossed over his Canadian citizenship in the process.
{{/usCountry}}“Should note that I grew up as English South African, not Afrikaans, and consider myself to be simply an American. No hyphen,” he wrote.
“That said, what’s happening in South Africa is deeply wrong. Not what Mandela intended at all,” Musk added.
Mocked on X
The statement was met with mockery and jibes on X, the social media platform that Musk owns. “We Americans see you simply as a South African, and simply as a piece of s**t. No hyphen,” wrote one X user.
“So you identify as someone else than you were born as? Interesting,” another quipped, referring to Musk’s long history of transphobia.
“Why do you have multiple citizenships, if you consider yourself to be an American?” a user questioned.
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, to Maye Musk, a Canadian-born model and dietitian, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer. He attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, for two years before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.
As of last week, more than 3.6 lakh people had signed a petition to revoke Musk’s Canadian citizenship. The petition accuses Musk of having “engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada” and using his “wealth and power to influence our elections.”