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No, this Musk post about favoring foreign workers over Americans isn't real | Fact check

Andre Byik   Paste BN
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The claim: Image shows Elon Musk post saying investing 'in Americans is actually hard'

A Dec. 26 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a screenshot of an X post from Elon Musk.

"Investing in Americans is actually hard. Really hard," text of the purported post reads. "It costs money and time and effort to make a person productive. It's a short term net loss. It's much easier to bring in skilled workers who might not do quite a good a job, but will work for a fraction of the cost and be happy just to be here."

The Threads post was liked more than 5,000 times in four days. A similar Facebook post was shared more than 300 times before it was deleted.

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Our rating: Altered

The supposed post is a fabrication. There is no record of the post on Musk's X profile, and Musk denied making it.

No reputable news organizations have quoted the purported post

Musk took to his X social media platform on Christmas Day to say that America has a shortage of "extremely talented and motivated engineers" and to argue that a temporary work visa program known as H-1B is needed to attract more highly skilled workers from abroad. The discussion exposed a rift between Musk and some of President-elect Donald Trump's supporters who want stricter immigration rules and more support for American workers. Trump later came out in favor of the H-1B program.

But Musk didn't share the X post seen in the Threads post. The image is a fabrication.

The purported post does not appear on Musk's X profile. And while Musk's holiday posts about the need to attract top engineering talent received widespread media coverage, no reputable news organization included a quote from the supposed post in the image.

Musk also denied making the post. He called the image a "fake" and a "lie" in response to X users who circulated it. These replies by Musk – and the original posts he commented on – have since been deleted.

The image includes a timestamp that indicates the purported post was shared at 9:24 p.m. on Dec. 25. While Musk shared a post at 9:24 p.m. PST on Dec. 25, it is not the post in the image. It reads, "You can just say things."

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The image indicates the purported post from Musk was viewed 371,700 times, which is the same number seen in numerous versions of the image shared across social media platforms. Some versions of the image have also been cropped to remove the timestamp and view number. These signs support the image being a fabrication that points back to a single source. If the post had been real, it would likely have been captured with differing view counts by some of Musk's 210 million followers on X.

The Threads user shared a Dec. 26 Rolling Stone article about the H-1B visa program debate to support an additional claim that Musk deleted the purported post. However, the article does not include Musk's supposed post. Instead, it quotes from a real post that Musk shared on Christmas Day that reads in part: "The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low."

Paste BN previously debunked false claims that images show X posts from Musk about the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect, his supposed influence over Trump and a purported threat to social media users who mock him.

Paste BN reached out to the Threads user and X's press office for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

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