“He’s not going to be president, I can tell you that,” Trump said at the Republican convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said of the South African-born Tesla and SpaceX owner.
The US Constitution stipulates that the President must be a natural born US citizen.
Trump was responding to criticism, particularly from the Democratic camp, of the tech billionaire and world’s richest man as “President Musk” for the outspoken role he is playing in the incoming administration.
After handing over the presidency to Musk, Trump assured the crowd: “No, no it’s not happening.”
Musk’s influence as Trump’s “efficiency czar” has been the focus of Democratic attacks, with questions raised about how an elected citizen can wield so much power.
And there is growing anger among Republicans, too, after Musk canceled a government funding proposal this week in a blizzard of posts — many of them false — to his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X.
Along with Trump, Musk ultimately helped pressure Republicans to abandon the funding bill they had so painstakingly agreed with Democrats, pushing the United States to the brink of budget paralysis that would have resulted in a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Congress finally reached an agreement Friday night into Saturday night, avoiding major disruptions in government services.