Can South African-born Elon Musk actually become Speaker of the House?

Republican Rand Paul has suggested that controversial right-wing billionaire, Elon Musk, be appointed as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

The Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House and is also its presiding officer.

The US Constitution does not explicitly require the speaker to be a current member of the House of Representatives, although every speaker in the past has been. The Constitution’s only requirement for the Speaker of the House is that the person is chosen by the House of Representatives. So, Musk could do it.

The 61-year-old US senator joined a variety of extreme-right Republican representatives to recommend the owner of X/Twitter for the position following the threat of a government shutdown.

“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul wrote in a Wednesday (19 December) post. “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk. Think about it … nothing’s impossible (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty’, lose their ever-lovin’ minds.)”

The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress . . .

Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it . . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’…

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 19, 2024

Anti-LGBTQ+ Georgia Republican, Marjorie Taylor Greene, also chimed in on the conversation on X/Twitter, writing that Musk’s foray into politics can “only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress” to enact what she described as “real government efficiency.”

The 53-year-old Tesla CEO, who was born in South Africa, has become increasingly relevant in American politics following Donald Trump’s election victory in November.

Trump vowed to appoint Musk as part of his cabinet under a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), named after the CEO’s favourite crypto-currency.

Musk, who in recent years has shared increasingly transphobic rhetoric, is so intent on working closely with Trump that the Republican president-elect reportedly “can’t get rid of him.“

Weighing in on the possibility of Elon Musk leading the House, Trump said he is “very happy” with current speaker Mike Johnson and that he feels Musk is “too busy sending rockets to the moon.”

“I think Mike is doing a good job,” he told ABC News. “If Mike proves to be as tough as he is, he has a great chance.”

Democrats condemned the idea of appointing an unelected billionaire to the position as “undemocratic,” with Ohio Congresswoman, Marcy Kaptur, asking whether Musk would “own the United States before it’s all over”

“He has a lot of personal interests here, and he’s not elected to anything,” she said to the Independent. “Some people are calling him the president and president (elect) Trump the vice president. I have to do some homework on who this man really is.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, accused Republicans of appointing a “President Elon Musk”, arguing that Musk was steering the agenda of the US.