Trump supporter Elon Musk became an entrepreneur as an illegal immigrant. Here’s how: Report

Elon Musk was working illegally in the US on a student visa when he became an entrepreneur, creating Zip2 after, according to report by The Washington Post, which cited former business partners, court records and company documents.

Read also: Swiggy IPO may go for public subscription on November 6-8, more details: Report

This contrasts with Musk becoming one of Donald Trump’s biggest campaign donors and supporters, reinforcing Trump’s claims that “open borders” and illegal immigrants are destroying America. He even accused Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats of “voter importing.”

Musk’s founding of Zip2 and selling it for about $300 million in 1999 was the springboard to Tesla and his other companies that made him the richest man in the world. He then found X.com (he used the same name he brought back to rebrand to Twitter), which became PayPal. eBay bought PayPal, which earned Musk about $176 million, which he used to place bets on Tesla and SpaceX.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires, his net worth is currently $277 billion Indexwhich is a huge jump from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who came in second place with $211 billion.

Read also: Microsoft fires employees who organized a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza

But international students cannot legally drop out of college and start a business, the report quoted Leon Fresco, a former Justice Department immigration lawyer, as saying.

The situation was such that the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures, which had invested $3 million in Zip2, demanded that Musk and his brother Kimbal obtain legal working status within 45 days or the company would recoup its investment. Zip2 board members were even concerned about the matter.

“We do not want our founder to be deported,” the report quoted Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became CEO, as saying. “We want to address this well before there is anything that could screw up” the company’s path to an initial public offering (IPO), Proudian added.

Read also: Germany is increasing the number of visas for skilled Indian workers to 90,000 from just 20,000 previously