This week, Trump has said Musk would have to "close up shop and head back home to South Africa" if he halted government subsidies to his companies, and then later added that his administration would "have to take a look" at deporting Musk.

As South Africa is buffeted by criticism from President Donald Trump and other American conservatives—some of it unfair and pushed by bad-faith actors—centrist business and political leaders dream of riding that storm to hasten reforms.