Photo: Eric Lee/The New York Times
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and an advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, has shared a post on Twitter claiming that the millions of victims of 20th century totalitarianism were killed not byAdolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, or Mao Zedong, but by “public sector workers.” The post has garnered more than 1.2 million views and 16,000 likes.
The retweet comes amid a mounting global boycott of Tesla in which widespread calls have been made for owners to sell their vehicles. In San Francisco, posters have appeared demanding people get rid of what critics are calling “swasticars.”
Musk has previously faced backlash over jokes about Nazism — and for twice making a Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration in January. The billionaire denied the accusations, tweeting that “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” following it up with a sleepy emoji. The Anti-Defamation League — a New York-based NGO that was founded to combat antisemitism — came to the influential billionaire’s defense, calling the salute an “awkward gesture made in a moment of enthusiasm.”
On Jan. 23 — three days after the incident — Musk made a series of Nazi-themed puns on social media in reaction to the controversy. The ADL characterized that particular Musk tweet as “offensive” and “inappropriate.”
Accusations of anti-Semitism against Musk date back to 2023, when he endorsed a post containing negative remarks about Jewish people. Following that incident, several major advertisers withdrew from Twitter.
Musk, who invested over $200 million in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, has also drawn criticism for his ties to far-right parties in Europe. At an Alternative for Germany (AfD) event, he declared that Germans must «move past» their guilt over World War II, a statement widely interpreted as an attempt to rehabilitate the Nazi regime.
Despite the controversy, Israeli officials have invited Tesla to bid on a government contract to supply electric vehicles for high-ranking officials. In an interview with the Jewish News Syndicate, an unnamed senior Israeli source characterized the calls to boycott Musk’s car company as a “woke trend.”
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