No, Elon Musk didn’t post on X criticizing the US for helping end apartheid in South Africa

Billionaire Elon Musk sank more than $100 million into President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. But a purported X post from the South African-born entrepreneur that mentions his campaign involvement is inauthentic. 

"There sure is a lot of chatter about me being a foreign-born person having an outsized influence on US politics, so allow me to remind everyone of the United States overstepping its boundary by helping to end apartheid in my home country," reads what looks like an X post from Musk. "Maybe we call it even?"

A Nov. 6 Threads post sharing what looks like a screenshot of the X post said: "Is this fool angry apartheid ended? He’s on a revenge mission? Revoke his citizenship for election interference and ban him and any company he’s involved with from doing business in the US."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on December 1, 2024 in a post

Kash Patel posted on X that “the FBI is gay.”

We looked for evidence Musk that said this but found none. It didn’t appear in a search of his X account, and there are no news stories reporting he made such a statement. 

Musk grew up under apartheid in South Africa, leaving the country when he was 17 to attend college in Canada. 

According to a 2017 Musk biography, written by Ashlee Vance, Musk said he didn’t want to partake in South Africa’s mandatory military service because it would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime, The New York Times reported in 2022.

We rate claims that this is an authentic X post from Musk False.