Can Elon Musk Run For President — Or Even Be Speaker Of The House? - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Elon Musk announced the launch of the American Party, a rival political faction that could potentially unseat congressional and Senate candidates currently up for re-election or disrupt the 2028 presidential election.

Now, people are questioning whether the Tesla Inc TSLA CEO is preparing to run for office.

What Happened: Musk's formation of the American Party coincides with the billionaire being at odds with President Donald Trump and members of Congress over the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” The legislation, which Trump officially signed into law on July 4, is expected to drastically increase America's debt.

Polls conducted by Musk on the social media platform X have shown strong support for a third-party option.

The question "can Elon Musk run for president?" is seeing increased interest on Google Trends, ranking at a tie for its multi-year high with the week of the 2024 presidential election.

The answer is no, as Musk was born in South Africa — not the U.S. While Musk later became a U.S. citizen in 2002, that’s not enough to qualify as a viable presidential candidate. According to the U.S. Constitution, there are three main requirements:

Be a natural-born citizen of the United States
Be at least 35 years of age
Been a resident of the United States for 14 years

Therefore, Musk can't declare candidacy for president of the United States or even be vice president. However, he could run for office in several other roles if he chooses.

The Constitution lays out requirements of age, citizenship and residency for running for the House of Representatives and Senate, but neither requires having been a natural-born citizen. Musk could currently run for either office based on becoming a citizen in 2002 and being over 30 years of age.

Musk could also run for governor of any state like Texas, where he resides, or California, where he previously called home. There have been several prominent governors who haven't been natural-born U.S. citizens, including actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (California), who was born in Austria.

Musk could also run for the Speaker of the House leadership role. His name was floated around last December, alongside Trump, as potential Speaker of the House candidates. The Constitution does not specify that the Speaker must be a member of Congress, although all past leaders have been elected officials and members of the majority party.

Did You Know?

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Why It's Important: Musk, despite being the world's richest person and one of the most influential people in the U.S., cannot run for president. Trump reminded the media of this last year when critics said he had ceded the presidency to the Tesla CEO.

"No, he's not going to be president, that I can tell you," Trump said. "And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be. He wasn't born in the country."

This is probably good news for Tesla shareholders. The company’s stock has been highly volatile ever since Musk became involved in politics. Musk running for president or becoming the country's leader would likely result in him stepping away from Tesla fully, and the company would need a new CEO.

Musk has not promised to back a third-party candidate running for president. Instead, he intends to support candidates in upcoming congressional races against those who voted in favor of Trump’s spending bill, which he called "utterly insane and destructive."

As Benzinga previously reported, a potential third-party push in a presidential election by Musk would face an uphill battle. After all, Democrats and Republicans have won every presidential election since 1852.

Times have changed since then. Musk’s ownership of X and his massive following could ignite a third-party movement — especially with the billions he could pour into an election. Whether he’s serious, or can reshape political history for the first time in more than 170 years, remains to be seen.

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