Biden says Elon Musk was an 'illegal worker' when he started his US career

President Joe Biden called Tesla And SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, now a Republican megadonor and Trump campaign surrogate, lashed out on immigration on Saturday, saying Musk began his long career as an “illegal worker” in the United States before becoming the world's richest man.

The president made the comments at a campaign rally to support Democrats in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

Labeling Musk a wealthy new “ally” of former President Donald Trump, Biden said, “The richest man in the world was here when he was an illegal worker,” referring to Musk.

“He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn't in school. He's breaking the law. He's talking about all these 'illegals' coming our way,” Biden added.

He then criticized Trump and Republicans for failing to sign legislation that would solve the “border problem.” He added, “We now have more illegal border crossings — or border crossings — than at any time since his third year as president of the United States.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Biden's comments.

Musk recently held a series of “town hall” events in the same swing state of Pennsylvania, where he tried to persuade voters to support Trump and Trump's policies. Kasturi stirred up his fan base there by offering a $1 million lottery-style prize to registered voters in swing states who signed a petition distributed by his pro-Trump group, America PAC.

According to an analysis by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Trump's new immigration policy proposals include the largest deportation crackdown in US history, an end to birthright citizenship and plans to revoke visas and deport foreign students who protest pro-Palestinians. .

Biden's comments about Musk, his Trump alliance and hypocrisy over immigration followed a Washington Post report that cited correspondence, legal records and multiple people who helped Musk get a work visa in 1996 when he already worked here without one.

Musk came to the US in the mid-90s with the stated intention of attending grad school at Stanford. He didn't enroll in the program he said he was accepted into and instead began building a venture-backed startup called Zip2 with his brother.

The Washington Post wrote that investors in Musk's first company were “concerned about 'deporting the founder' and gave him a deadline to get a work visa.”

Zip2 sells for approx $300 million in 1999, which enabled Elon Musk to later become an early investor and chairman of Tesla and start his capital-intensive space venture SpaceX, now a major US defense contractor.

These businesses have propelled Musk to become the world's richest man on paper. According to Forbes, the Tesla CEO's net worth today is about $274 billion.

In late 2022, Musk used that considerable wealth to acquire the social network Twitter in a $44 billion purchase.

Since the rebranding of the platform, X, Musk has repeatedly claimed in posts seen by his massive online fan base that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are somehow harming the United States.

He also shares the false claim that non-citizens are systematically voting in US elections, a conspiracy theory promoted by conservative groups to create a legal basis to contest the election results if Democratic Vice President nominee Kamala Harris wins the presidency.

In the United States, it is already a federal crime and a crime under each state law for noncitizens to register or vote in federal elections.

According to research compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice, “extensive research reveals that fraud is extremely rare, voter impersonation is virtually non-existent, and many instances of alleged fraud are, in fact, errors by voters or administrators. The same is true for mail-in ballots, which are a safe haven amid the coronavirus pandemic. Safe and essential for conducting elections.”

– CNBC's Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.