Here in America | general

The theory is an old one: someone, whether it be a political party, a hidden force, “the Jews” or some other pet hate, is importing foreigners en masse to replace the population of a given country politically, culturally and demographically. There is actually nothing new in this nonsense, which was repeated by French-speaking anti-Semites in the 19th century, and by German Nazis and American white supremacists in the following century. There has been some shame, for a few decades, in saying so publicly. But it is no longer there. Today, in its current form, the Great Replacement Theory is making its way into the world prevailing Media and politics add casualties to xenophobic violence.

Elon Musk was born in South Africa in 1971. At the age of 18, he moved to Canada and obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother. In 1992, he came to the United States to study at the University of Pennsylvania, and later enrolled in a doctorate at Stanford University, which he never began. In California, around 1995, Musk and his brother Kimbal traded college life for technology entrepreneurship.

In numerous interviews and debates over the years, the aforementioned brother has repeated the story that he and Elon began their careers in the United States as “illegal immigrants.” At the very least, he admits, they would be “in a gray area.” also Who is now the richest man in the world.

Neither journalists nor Musk's biographers have been able to clarify this “gray area” of history so far. Did Kimball and Elon Musk enter the United States on student visas, which prevented them from working or doing business, and yet they started building their companies? The brothers of South African origin also refuse to highlight this period. What is common is that Elon Musk obtained US citizenship in 2002, so presumably he will have regularized his legal status at least five years ago, according to naturalization laws.

If we didn't talk about Musk and the story would be relatively trite. It is impossible to determine how many of all the foreigners who enter the United States daily on temporary visas and for limited purposes – such as students, nannies, athletes, artists or simply tourists – and who end up settling in the country. Some settle their situations. Others, especially those without the necessary financial resources, live for years as illegal immigrants.

But Musk is not just an immigrant. The former owner of companies like Tesla, SpaceX or Twitter (now X) is one of the major political players in the current election cycle.

This Saturday, after a long courtship, Musk took to the stage at a Trump rally in Butler, a town in the battleground state of Pennsylvania where the Republican candidate survived an assassination attempt, to once again express his support for the former president.

The “billionaire” said: “President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. (…) Otherwise, this will be the last election. This is my expectation.”

Musk is often described as a visionary, but he does not possess the talents of a seer. In 2014, he said that humans would reach Mars in 2024. In March 2020, he announced that the COVID-19 pandemic would end the following month. There are also many promised products and technologies that have not yet been realized. Or how he promised that the old Twitter site would be politically neutral in his hands, while simultaneously becoming a megaphone for the far right.

But the apocalyptic prediction that November's US presidential election will be the last is linked to the Great Replacement Theory, of which Musk is currently one of the biggest promoters. For months, the “billionaire” has been writing in X that the Democratic Party will allow millions of foreigners to win this and the next election.

The theory – repeat – is nonsense. All state and federal election authorities have confirmed that cases of people, whether citizens or foreigners, who were able to vote incorrectly in North American elections are entirely residual. The path each immigrant must take to obtain a permanent residence permit, and from there to naturalization, which gives him the right to vote, is almost always longer and more circuitous than the law promises.

Once they obtain citizenship, new US citizens tend to participate in elections less than their US-born compatriots. When they vote, new Americans tend to favor the Democratic Party, but not by an overwhelming majority. So much so that Republicans have grown with Trump among Hispanic and Latino voters, who are far from being a unified bloc politically and socially. Finally, more than half of the immigrants in the United States live in California, Texas, New York, and Florida. Of these states, only the last state will be able to enter the deciding electoral college in November – yet this is a remote possibility.

Therefore, Musk is lying, appealing to the worst instincts of the Republican candidate and his supporters. But his xenophobia is also strategic, as is his recent approach to Trump, with whom he traded attacks not long ago — at the beginning of this election cycle, Musk said the former president was a “loser” and was not old enough. To return to the White House, having supported the nominations of Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy; Trump announced in 2022 that all the businessman had to do was beg him on his knees for subsidies for his projects.

More than just espousing a protectionist or anti-immigrant view, Musk follows other figures in the tech and financial sectors who see Democrats as an obstacle to growing their businesses, through regulation. In recent years, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon have faced antitrust lawsuits in the United States; The cryptocurrency sector has been the target of criminal investigations; The White House has made efforts to regulate artificial intelligence. The Silicon Valley revolution, among other movements, gave rise to an angry statement by influential investor Marc Andreessen against regulators' “deeply unethical” opposition to new technologies that came to the world's rescue, and brought together many industry figures in funds for fundraising events. For Republicans. Among these is musk.

The irony, of course, lies in the use of xenophobic arguments by a former immigrant, one of those who lived in a “gray zone,” who is now using his enormous financial and media power to influence the presidential election. How many votes did having a mask in Butler gain for Trump? What about the transformation of Twitter, the former public arena of the Internet, into an increasingly biased and manipulative space? To be sure, more than a handful of ballots were cast by a few illegal immigrants. But for Trump's supporters, the less obvious conspiracy is the one in front of them.