What if Musk ran for president? - eviltoast

This occurred to me the other day and I feel like it’s so crazy that it maybe could happen. Is it too late for him to run in the upcoming election?

    • Fondots@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You have to admit though that after all of the Obama birther bullshit, it would perfectly round out the Gaslight Obstruct and Project gameplan.

      • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Also for all their fussing about Obama not being born in the US (even though he was), their guy, John McCain actually wasn’t born in the US, but in Panama. McCain was still considered a natural-born citizen because of an act of congress which stated:

        And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens.

        Which would also presumably cover Obama even if he wasn’t born in the US, since one of his parents is American.

        Also Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico but was allowed to run for president in 1968 for the same reason.

        • AnarchoPlayworker@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          I guess, I mean there could be value in having an outsider in office, just not him. But I don’t know. It is a little sketch.

          • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Put it this way, should the range of eligible candidates include the world’s richest person, or merely the richest person born in America?

            • Cheems@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I think the thought of this rule is to prevent an actual puppet of an enemy country being bankrolled into office by a malicious foreign entity. Obviously he could do it himself. But he’d still probably destroy this county quicker than he destroyed Twitter.

              • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                You’re talking to a guy who thinks that has probably already happened at least once, so I’m thinking if it at least stops Musk from running then the rule at least had an unintended good side effect.

                That said I don’t think more billionaires will need to become presidents to kill the country. They nearly succeeded with Jan 6 already.

                • Cheems@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  And that’s fair, there are plenty of puppets that were born here. But I guess in the brain of the founders, maybe that was was inconceivable. If that was indeed the intent.

    • Loki@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      @Gradually_Adjusting Let’s be honest, if non-natural born US citizens could be president, there’s a non-szero chance we would have seen President Schwarzenegger more than decade ago.
      I love Arrnie, fon’t get me wrong, but electing popular figures rarely goes well (lloking at you, Reagan)

      @anarchoplayworker

    • HelixDab@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Not strictly necessary. If his parents were US citizens–and they aren’t–then it wouldn’t matter where he was born. Kind of. I think that there might be residency requirements for children of US citizens that are born abroad, e.g., if your parents are expats and you live all your life in another country, you might not be a citizen, but it’s complicated. You’d def. want to contact an immigration attorney if that was the case.

      BUT…!

      The point is that Musk, since he wasn’t born to US citizens, and since he wasn’t born in the US, isn’t eligible to run for president.

      It’s an open question as to what happens if he ran anyways, and how votes would be tabulated, etc. It would get messy, but I don’t think that it’s ever happened that someone ineligible has run for president and won any significant amount of the vote.

    • ugh@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Right-wingers do. Buying Twitter exposed him as a terrible business man who could only be considered a genius by Trump standards. Luckily for him, many Twitter users do think Trump is a business-savvy genius!! He has an even bigger following now because he isn’t pandering to tech nerds who are genuinely interested in what he’s doing with his tech companies. Now he’s targeting the alt-right with conspiracy theories, Hunter Biden’s dick pics laptop, and “free speech” (for only $11/month!).

      • amio@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        “free speech” (for only $11/month!).

        Assuming he doesn’t disagree with anything you say, of course. Or your flight data doesn’t hurt his little fee-fees.

        It’s hilarious how much of a clown that guy turned into after seeming vaguely accomplished and sane for five whole minutes.

  • eric5949@lemmy.cloudaf.site
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    1 year ago

    Not a natural born American Citizen, not that the constitution means anything anymore but we at least pay lip service to it sometimes and that’s part of it.

  • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Honestly…im fucking here for that. Obviously he would never get elected but holy shit his campaign would be deliciously cringe worthy.

  • teydam@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Not born here yep, everytime this pops into my head I think yay! although it would be funny to watch him waste more money because he wouldn’t win…

  • DannyMac@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Trump was (and, fuck, maybe will be again) elected president. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. As of right now, no he can’t since he isn’t natural born, but hell, it’s not impossible to have the constitution amended, just very unlikely.

    I remember after Trump was elected, I stopped watching House of Cards (I think this was before Spacey’s indiscretions were mainstream public) because reality really became stranger and scarier than fiction.