He’s the richest man in the world with unlimited funds and an army of supporters who have his back.

But Elon Musk may be scrambling to come up with a contingency plan as his former best friend – who is the President of the United States – has threatened to deport him.

The billionaire was born in Pretoria, South Africa, but his relationship with his country of birth might at best be described as rocky.

He has accused the government there of being racist against white people, and it is hard to imagine him wanting to return.

Another route could be Canada, where he has citizenship through his mother. But he is unpopular there, with 400,000 Canadians signing a petition to strip his citizenship.

The idea of Musk leaving the US, where he has been a naturalized citizen since 2002, has arisen after he fell out spectacularly with Donald Trump in recent weeks.

Long gone are the days when ‘first buddy’ Musk, as head of Trump’s DOGE unit, was a constant presence by the President’s side at the White House and Mar-a-Lago.

Instead, Musk has been throwing bombs on X in a bid to blow up Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ the legislative centerpiece of his second term.

Trump believes the bill will turbocharge the economy with millions of jobs, while Musk has slammed it as ‘insane’ and claimed it will balloon the deficit by trillions of dollars.

Amid the escalating war of words on Tuesday, Trump was asked if he would deport Musk.

Speaking, appropriately enough, at a new migrant detention facility called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida, Trump responded: ‘Well have to take a look…’

In a further threat, he suggested cutting federal subsidies to Musk’s companies including SpaceX and Tesla.

Ominously, he added: ‘Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa..’

But there are few countries currently less hospitable for Musk than his birthplace.

In May, when South African president Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Oval Office, Trump ambushed him on the issue of the deaths of white farmers.

Standing silently behind a sofa, on the shoulder of Vice President JD Vance, was Musk.

The billionaire did not speak during the event, but occasionally smiled to himself.

At one point Trump had the lights dimmed and played a video of people in South Africa chanting ‘Shoot the Boer, Shoot the farmer.’

A video was also shown of white crosses erected in memory of murdered white farmers. The footage had previously been posted on social media by Musk.

The meeting came two months after Musk unloaded on South Africa in a row over whether it would allow use of his Starlink satellites

‘Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black,’ a furious Musk wrote on X.

He appeared to be taking a swipe at South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment rules that foreign-owned telecommunications licensees sell 30 percent of the equity in their local subsidiaries to historically disadvantaged groups.

With a new life in South Africa unlikely, Musk could also go to Canada. His mom Mae was born in Saskatchewan and moved to South Africa in 1950 with her parents when she was seven.

Elon Musk went the other way as a teenager, moving briefly to Canada aged 17 in 1988.

He is said to have arrived with a backpack, some books and a few thousand dollars – and then obtained citizenship through his mother.

But, while the country might once have been proud of its brief association with his success, that has faded.

Musk’s association with Trump’s attempts to annex Canada as the ’51st state’ have left him a pariah.

Above a Tesla dealership in Ottawa, Canadian flags have been draped from a nearby tower block in protest.

The petition ‘He has used his wealth and power to influence our elections,’ the petition claims.

‘He has now become a member of a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty.’

In a response to the petition, Musk wrote on X ‘Canada is not a real country.’ CNN has reached out to Musk’s representatives for comment.

The petition to Parliament aims to ‘revoke Elon Musk’s dual citizenship status, and revoke his Canadian passport effective immediately.’

It says: ‘He has used his wealth and power to influence our elections. He has now become a member of a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty.’ Musk has responded by saying: ‘Canada is not a real country.’

There appears no sign of Musk making any move to establish an alternate base outside the US.

He owns many homes in America, including a massive compound in Texas, and his 12 children are all American He does not appear to currently own a home outside the US.

If push came to shove, and the pressure from Trump to leave became too much, the billionaire might be tempted to head to a Middle Eastern tax haven like Dubai.

But unless he renounces his US citizenship then he would still have to pay tax to Uncle Sam on the vast majority of his income.

If he did renounce his US citizenship he would be unable to base his companies in the US.

There have been unconfirmed reports that he was looking at buying a home in Portugal, after a visit last year.

Another possibility would be Shanghai, China, where Tesla has its biggest factory, or Germany where the biggest Tesla site in Europe is located.

But Musk does not speak the language of either country.

Experts say it is highly unlikely Trump would be able to deport Musk, so the president would have to use other levers such as making life difficult for the billionaire’s companies.

But those calling for Trump to investigate Musk’s immigration history were given extra ammunition recently by a resurfaced interview from 2013.

In it Musk is seen being interviewed on stage at the Milken Institute with younger brother Kimbal.

The conversation turned to how they raised money for their first startup in America, a software company called Zip2.

‘In fact, when they did fund us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants…’ Kimbal laughed.

It was an uncomfortable moment for the soon-to be richest man in the world, and future vocal critic of unlawful migration.

‘Well….,’ said Elon hesitantly.

‘Yes we were,’ Kimbal responded.

‘I would say it was a gray area,’ said Elon.

‘Yes we were. We were illegal immigrants,’ Kimbal repeated.

He then moved on to describe how the struggling Musk brothers had owned a car with a wheel that fell off.

Elon Musk has since maintained that, while his brother was in the United States illegally, he himself did have the right to work when they set up Zip2 in the 1990s.     

The suggestion that he was originally in the U.S. illegally remains unproven, and he has vehemently denied it.

It stems from a Washington Post investigation last year, citing company documents, former business associates and court records.

According to the report Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University, but never enrolled, instead starting Zip2 with his brother. They went on to sell that company for $300 million four years later.

Musk has said that his first visa was a J-1 student visa.

The J-1 Exchange Visitor visa lets foreign students get academic training in U.S.

‘Musk would have needed to be engaged in a full course of study (at least 12 academic hours a semester) in order to qualify for work while being a J-1 student,’ according to Greg Siskind, a leading immigration lawyer. And Stanford would have had to have approved the work.’

However, Musk has said that ‘I was on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B.’

The H1-B visa is for temporary employment.

According to the Washington Post early investors in Zip2 were concerned about immigration status, and one said: ‘We don’t want our founder being deported.’

The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders about his immigration status in the 1990s.

‘Actually, I didn’t really care much for the degree, but I had no money for a lab and no legal right to stay in the country, so that seemed like a good way to solve both issues,’ Musk wrote.

On a podcast in 2021, again with Kimbal, Musk sought to clarify the issue.

‘I don’t know if you were, but I was not legally in America. So I was illegally there,’ Kimbal said.

Elon replied: ‘I was legally there, but I was meant to be student work, I had a student work visa.’

His brother said: ‘You were supposed to be doing a PhD. at Stanford and decided not to.’

‘I was allowed to do work, sort of supporting, whatever, you know,’ Elon said. ‘No, no, you’re illegal. I was legal, but my visa was going to run out in two years. Student visa.’

Despite his protestations that there was nothing amiss with his initial immigration status, Musk has faced attacks over it from an unlikely alliance of critics on the right and left.

Earlier this month, MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon said: ‘I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately, Elon Musk is illegal, and he’s got to go. He’s illegal? Deport immediately. You’re going to ship these other people home. Let’s start with the South Africans, OK?’

And, last October, then-President Joe Biden claimed: ‘That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious.

‘He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?’

Elon Musk has since maintained that, while his brother was in the United States illegally, he himself did have the right to work when they set up Zip2 in the 1990s.

‘I was in fact allowed to work in the U.S.,’ Musk wrote on X. ‘The Biden puppet is lying.’