Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk said on Italian television that he believes what makes a country is not its geographic location but its people.

He was interviewed by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s ‘The League Congress’ where he explained what he meant.

“Yes, the mass immigration is insane and will lead to the destruction of any country that allows unfettered mass immigration. The country will simply cease to exist. At the end of the day, it is a numbers game, a numbers situation,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said.

“If there are eight billion people in the world, and let’s say you’re a country of 50 million, 60 million, or for a medium-sized country, but even for a country like the United States, which is 350 million, given that there are eight billion people in the world, it only takes a few percent of the rest of the world to move to the country to where it is no longer that country. A country is not its geography. A country is its people,” he said.

He said that it was basic common sense that if you brought a group of people who speak the same language and have the same traditions to a new location they would still be who they are.

“This is a fundamental concept that is truly obvious. I mean, if you took the people of Italy and you teleported the people of Italy to, say, some part of the United States, it would still be Italy,” the owner of X said.

“But if you teleported a bunch of people from some other part of the world to Italy, where they’re telling people no longer because they’ve been teleported to America, then the geographic region would no longer be Italy. It would be that other country. A country is its people, not its geography,” he said.