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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        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
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          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
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            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
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              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
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                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
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      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.