Musk mocks Nazi salute accusations with puns
Elon Musk referenced Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders in a social media post filled with puns early Thursday taunting those who accused him of doing a Nazi salute at an event after President Trump’s inauguration.
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies,” Musk wrote on his social platform X.
“His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,” he added with a laughing emoji.
Musk’s post references Hitler’s deputy party leader, Rudolf Hess; Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels; Gestapo creator Hermann Gőring; and Heinrich Himmler, who was in charge of racial extermination efforts throughout the Holocaust.
The Tesla CEO has claimed mainstream media has misportrayed a gesture intended to be a symbol of love as an antisemitic salute.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), however, said Musk’s action was a signal to neo-Nazi groups across the world assuring supporters that Trump stands with them.
Murphy said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC that Musk has been “constantly trading in antisemitic conspiracy theories on Twitter.”
“He endorsed the far-right neo-Nazi party in Germany. But you don’t have to believe me,” Murphy added.
“Just look at what happened that night on far-right Telegram channels. Neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist groups here in the United States said, ‘That’s our guy. That’s our signal. Donald Trump’s with us. He’s with our white supremacy agenda.’”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also criticized Musk for the gesture, which she described as a Nazi salute.
“If you’re cool and want to defend the ‘Sieg Heils’ and the Nazi salutes … whatever you want to do, that’s on you,” she said on Instagram earlier this week. “I’m on the opposite side of that. I’m not with the Nazis.”
The New York Democrat said hating Nazis is a “foundational, defining” part of being American.
Trump has not publicly commented on Musk’s gestures or the controversy they sparked. Musk poured billions into Trump’s campaign efforts and has trailed closely behind him in prominent events and meetings. In late December, Democrats jokingly referred to Musk as the “president” and speculated the tech giant was set to make decisions behind the scenes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Musk’s defense on social media, declaring Thursday that he was being “falsely smeared.”
“@elonmusk is being falsely smeared. Elon is a great friend of Israel. He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X outlining Musk’s visit to Israel after deadly Hamas attacks.
“He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state. I thank him for this,” Netanyahu added.
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