A teen who faced deportation in Denmark has said 54-year-old tech billionaire Elon Musk’s remarks about her “hotness” are “crazy.”
In a now-deleted X post from Sunday, Musk commented on the story of Audrey Morris, a now-19-year-old U.S. native who was at risk of deportation from the country where she’s mostly lived since she was 9 years old.
“8 or above level hotness should get an exemption,” Musk wrote with a laughing emoji.
Morris said she wasn’t “surprised” by Musk’s comment, but that “it’s definitely crazy.”
“From the beginning, the second that my case was kind of made public, it has been about appearances and because, ‘oh, she’s blonde and she’s white!’ And so the thing he said in of itself wasn’t shocking to me, but coming from him, yes, it was definitely…I was floored,” she told the Daily Beast.
The Independent has reached out for comment from Musk and Morris.
According to the Danish newspaper, Århus Stiftstidende, Morris has lived in Aarhus, a city on Denmark’s east coast, for most of her life.
The newspaper reported last January that Danish authorities had decided not to extend her residence permit as an accompanying family member because she was not living with her mother while completing high school in Viborg, about an hour’s drive northwest of Aarhus. At the time, Morris’ application for permanent residence was being processed.
“It would’ve been really cool if he commented something like, ‘Oh wow, look how many academic things she’s reached,’ or whatever. That would’ve been great. It could have been so helpful,” Morris, originally from Los Angeles, said of Musk.
But she said “if this just at least brings it to the attention of anyone who cares, then I’m fine with being embarrassed a little bit. That’s okay.”
The Daily Beast reported Morris was ultimately given a 10-year residency permit but was denied citizenship.
Musk, who had a small stint in the White House as head of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency before his public fall out with the president, has made his stance on illegal immigration known, saying during the Biden administration that the influx of undocumented migrants was “crushing the country.”
But the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who was born in South Africa and eventually gained American citizenship, has defended legal immigration, specifically H1-B visas. Musk said during a podcast with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath that aired in late November that his companies use the temporary employment program because of the “scarcity of talented people.”
