Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and an advisor to US President Donald Trump. How he was raised and how this shaped him as a person is clear from two publications in ZDF and "The Guardian".
The German public media ZDF published an interview with the father of the American billionaire and richest man in the world - Errol Musk, taken in May 2023. He confirms that his son grew up mostly with him - they lived together until Elon's 17th birthday. According to Errol Musk, he and his son were very similar. "People say he's my clone."
From the father's story, it is also clear that until he was 12 years old, Elon slept in a large double bed with him, even though he had his own room - he obviously felt a need for closeness. He and his brother were very obedient children - like little soldiers. They did everything their father told them, says Errol Musk.
Furthermore, in his interview with ZDF, he denies that Elon had a difficult childhood, that he was bullied and beaten by others at school. "You know what boys are like - they don't like good students. Such children are waited on after classes and imposed with bags by others. In South Africa (Musk attended high school in a prestigious neighborhood of Johannesburg - ed.) it's no different than in many other countries around the world," says Errol Musk. According to him, this is something completely normal and part of growing up.
"If your kids have never hated you, then you haven't been a good father"
In response to the question of why Elon called him "terrible" and "demonic", his father says that he has been called worse words and that it didn't bother him at all. Errol Musk also points out the following: "If your kids have never hated you, then you haven't been a good father. That is. "You can't expect your children to be successful in life if you treat them too gently."
Regarding his son's radical political change in recent years, the billionaire's father says that Elon Musk has never been involved in politics. But in 2021, he got very angry when President Biden met with all electric car manufacturers without inviting "Tesla" . "That's when his awakening began. A few months later, Elon asked to buy Twitter, and now he's finally woken up," Errol Musk told ZDF.
He remembers perfectly how one day Elon told him that Trump was Satan. But he has learned a lot since then, and with Twitter he made it clear to the world that the government (under Biden's leadership - ed.) is corrupt. "He showed that to everyone", says Musk-father in the interview with ZDF.
"Everything he does now is in the right direction"
Erol Musk is adamant that it is certainly not money that drives his son anymore: "Even if he spends a million a day for the next 550 years, he will probably still have more than anyone else. So it is difficult for him to find a new challenge".
The father is of the opinion that the real driving force for his son at the moment is the limitless possibilities. What could be the next challenge for him in this case, Errol Musk wonders in this regard and adds: "My biggest worry is that he will lose interest in rockets and cars".
Finally, ZDF asks the father what he thinks about the fact that many people think his son may be dangerous. He replies: "No, no. Elon is only dangerous to people who are lazy and useless. These are not good people. Empathy is what we have to fight with. But when Elon wants something, he gets it. It has always been like this", assures the father of the American billionaire Errol Musk in an interview with ZDF, which took place in May 2023.
A victim of his classmates
More touches on Elon Musk's childhood are added by the "Guardian" newspaper. The publication writes that Musk's family belonged to the white, English-speaking South Africans who benefited from the racial hierarchy during apartheid. In 1985, while studying at an all-white high school in a suburb of Johannesburg, Elon Musk was subjected to severe bullying by his classmates. In one of these violent scenes, he was pushed down the stairs and beaten so brutally that he had to be hospitalized, writes "The Guardian".
The British publication also looks even further back into Musk's family history. In the 1930s, the billionaire's grandfather led an anti-democratic, extreme, openly fascist movement in Canada, which fought for rule by elite technocrats. Then he moved to South Africa and apartheid, because the racist system appealed to him.
Now Musk seems happy to embrace the American version of the "strong" ruler, supporting Trump's thesis that the president's will is of paramount importance, commented "The Guardian".
"We exchange messages almost every day"
Kimbal, Elon's brother, told Musk biographer Walter Isaacson that their father Errol would yell at them for two to three hours a day, calling them useless and pathetic, and their mother May would accuse him of physical abuse.
"That's nonsense", Errol says, dismissing the accusations. The boys became estranged from their father and even got angry with him when he expressed his support for Trump at a party in Cape Town in 2016, organized for his 70th birthday and Elon Musk's 45th birthday.
"Things changed with Biden when Elon realized they were trying to destroy America," Errol says, quoted by "The Guardian". "Now we exchange messages almost every day. "Of course, he doesn't always have time, so his personal assistant answers," adds Musk-father.