The Musk family continues to be controversial, with Elon and Errol Musk proving to be as divisive as ever.

As well as being the world's richest man, Elon Musk finds himself in a new position of power thanks to his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

That's not the only reason he's in the news, with him potentially having two new children revealed in the past two weeks, wielding a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and lurking in the background of Donald Trump pictures.

One of his biggest controversies involved accusations he performed a 'Nazi salute' at President Trump's January 20 inauguration celebrations. There's been backlash from Tesla owners and Musk's own daughter, but defending his son, Errol Musk thinks it's all a misunderstanding.

Speaking to Al Arabia, Errol Musk says that Elon was struggling to get through his inauguration speech and was trying to look charming.

Discussing the situation, Errol Musk referred to his son as a 'terrible' public speaker who apparently "has a lot to learn."

Saying that he also struggled with public speaking when he first started, Errol Musk continued: "I know him very well, that he was struggling to get through his little speech as fast as possible and to try and look as charming as possible as he could, you know, but he's.

“He struggles. He's not. He hasn't reached the incredibly smooth level of people like yourself, who are years of experience, can talk very well."

As for the controversial gesture, Errol added: "It was not a Nazi (salute). It was an international salute that we've had for maybe the last 10,000 years, more, perhaps.

“And the old German Hail Caesar, of course, obviously emanated from, no doubt from the Persians, the Sumerians and so on. It simply meant, my right hand is empty. I do not carry a weapon."

He goes on to bizarrely claim that other political leaders have pulled off the same gesture, echoing an X post that shows Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris with their arms in the air.

Errol Musk concluded: "Kamala Harris doing exactly the same thing. Nobody seemed to be bothered with it when. When they did it. And whereas Elon was a thrusting out of his arm.

“There's his actual, you know, sort of like this, which is more like the original Hitler one or something. You know, the. The. The Hail Caesar one was like this, you know, and so on. No, no, it was nonsense. But. But somewhat comical that they picked it up like that, so it's a bit funny."

Errol Musk's defence of his son comes after he's previously branded him a 'bad' father. Elon's dad spoke about the death of the billionaire's first son and claimed that his children were left with nannies too much.

Elon and Errol Musk have something of a strained relationship, although the latter comes to his son's defence at the most unexpected times.

Elon Musk is (almost) as rich as they come.

With him set to become the world's first official trillionaire, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has a pretty healthy bank balance to say the least.

With Elon Musk seeing even more digits added to his bank balance in the aftermath of the 2024 American election, his net worth is on the up.

Still, even the world's richest man is far from the richest man who's ever existed.

According to Money.com, that honor goes to Mansa Musa. With a fortune sitting at $400 billion, Mansa Musa is thought to be far and away the richest person that has ever lived.

Mansa Musa is the richest person who has ever lived (Pictures from History / Contributor / Getty)

Known as the tenth Mansa (conqueror) of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa reigned from 1312 to 1337 and owes his immense fortune to his hordes of gold and legacy as the 'King of Timbuktu.' During the height of his power, the Malian Empire was the largest producer of gold in the world - at a time when it was most in demand.

According to Rudolph Ware, an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan, Musa was so rich, that people couldn't even explain how rich he was. Ware says: "This is the richest guy anyone has ever seen, that’s the point. They’re trying to find words to explain that.

"There are pictures of him holding a scepter of gold on a throne of gold holding a cup of gold with a golden crown on his head. Imagine as much gold as you think a human being could possess and double it, that’s what all the accounts are trying to communicate."

Elon Musk is quickly catching up to Mansa Musa (ANGELA WEISS / Contributor / Getty)

While Elon Musk is undoubtedly rich and has spent a huge sum on a compound to house his children, that's nothing compared to stories about Mansa Musa's wealth.

There's the famous tale of his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, with reports of up to 200,000 men, with 12,000 slaves each carrying four pounds of gold bars.

Musa's spending was reportedly so lavish, it caused a currency crisis in Egypt. Beat that, Elon.

At the time of writing, Elon Musk's current net worth is $334.1 billion, which is a massive $70 billion leap since the election.

To put it into context, it's overtaken Musk's previous high of $320.3 billion from November 2021. Back then, Tesla saw a surge in the midst of the pandemic.

It comes after a rocky year for the billionaire, with Musk wiping $15 billion off his net worth due to a botched Tesla showcase. It's not taken him long to get back on top, and considering he was only worth $27 billion at the start of 2020, he could soon overtake Mansa Musa's all-time worth. After all, what's $70 billion between friends?

Elon Musk takes a $100 billion hit as Tesla shares slide, stripping it of its trillion-dollar status.

The 53-year-old sits comfortably as the world’s richest person but things aren't looking as positive for his electric car company.

Since mid-December, the Tesla CEO's net worth has dropped by more than $100 billion as Tesla’s stock continues its downward spiral.

On Tuesday (25 February), Tesla shares fell another 8%, closing at $302.80, marking a 25% decline so far this year.

The data shows Tesla’s vehicle registrations in Europe plummeted by 45% in January compared to the previous year, even as overall EV sales on the continent increased. Additionally, sales in China seem to show a downward trend.

Some analysts believe European buyers are turning away from Tesla due to Musk’s deep involvement in the Trump administration, which is currently straining US-Europe relations.

Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty

Others are saying investors are cashing out after Tesla’s massive gains over the past year. Despite the recent slump, the stock has increased 52% in the last 12 months. Gary Black, managing partner at The Future Fund investment group, warned that Tesla shares could slide even further this year given the company's direction on 2025 vehicle deliveries.

Musk’s influence stretches far beyond Tesla - he also leads SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and AI company xAI, not to mention his controversial role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

But Tesla investors have long accepted Musk’s multiple responsibilities and they’ve also credited his leadership for the company’s success. So if anything, they view him as more than capable of juggling multiple ventures.

However, events like the recent robotaxi reveal don't show overwhelming positive feedback. The I, Robot event, back in October, left many investors and Wall Street analysts unimpressed, saying it 'disappointed expectations in several areas.'

The I, Robot event in October left many investors unimpressed / Sjoerd van der Wal / Contributor / Getty

As a result, Tesla's stock fell by roughly 15%, and since Musk owned around 13% of the company at the time, his net worth took a hit as well.

Furthermore, Elon Musk and Tesla are being sued by the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 over the robotaxi design.

Nonetheless, Musk continues to roll out new Tesla models, adapting to shifting driver preferences, and the company is also expanding its full self-driving technology into China.

“Tesla’s superior products, new more affordable vehicle, which I believe will be a new form factor and expand Tesla’s total addressable market, and the promise of unsupervised autonomy will sell more Teslas,” Black wrote on X.

At the time of writing, the tech billionaire's net worth sits at $379.9 billion but it's still a massive $144 billion richer than the second-richest person in the world, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Elon Musk has said he would consider giving American taxpayers a payout from DOGE savings.

The Tesla CEO responded to a proposal on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting a 'DOGE Dividend.'

In other words, Musk would give Americans a $5,000 tax refund check using savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The idea was pitched by James Fishback, CEO of Azoria and an outside adviser to DOGE. Fishback is also an outspoken supporter of Trump and Musk and posted the idea on X.

He posted on X: "President Trump and @ElonMusk should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’—a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE."

The CEO also attached a pretty in-depth PDF that he titled 'The case for a DOGE Dividend.'