Musk Retweets ‘Hitler Didn’t Murder Millions’ Message Amid Ongoing Nazi Controversy
Topline
Tesla chief and presidential adviser Elon Musk shared a post Thursday that said public sector workers, not Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, murdered millions of people, marking the billionaire’s latest Nazi-related post as he and his electric vehicle company face continued backlash and boycotts as critics say his embrace of right-wing politics is veering more extreme.
Musk retweeted the post on Thursday. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
Musk, who has over 219 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, retweeted a post saying Soviet revolutionary Joseph Stalin, former Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong and Hitler—whose regime under his direction orchestrated the Holocaust—did not murder millions of people, “Their public sector workers did.”
The post had 1 million views and 14,000 likes as of Thursday evening.
Musk’s repost comes as Tesla is facing boycotts around the world that has resulted in calls for Tesla owners to sell their vehicles and posters in the Bay Area urging owners to “sell your swasticar.”
The repost also follows Nazi puns made by Musk in January, when he evoked the names of infamous Nazi party members like Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels after coming under fire for a gesture he made at a Trump inaugural event that was likened to a Nazi salute by foreign leaders and Democrats.
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Chief Critic
“It is deeply disturbing and irresponsible for someone with a large public platform to elevate the kind of rhetoric that serves to undermine the seriousness of these issues,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement Thursday, responding to Musk’s retweet.
Key Background
Musk has faced antisemitism allegations since 2023, when the billionaire openly agreed with a post that claimed “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also said the western Jewish population was “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much,” to which Musk said, “You have said the actual truth.” Musk was condemned for the post and several advertisers fled from his platform in the wake of his comment.
What Other Nazi-Related Controversies Has Musk Faced?
Musk, who sunk over $200 million into President Donald Trump’s campaign and has since become one of the president’s most senior advisers, also faced criticism for the “Sieg Heil”-like salute he made at a January inaugural event celebrating Trump’s win. Since then, the billionaire has denied he made a Nazi salute and played off backlash with Nazi puns blasted by the Anti-Defamation League, which defended his “awkward gesture” but emphasized in a tweet “the Holocaust is not a joke.” Musk has also aligned himself with far-right political parties in the U.K. and Germany, appearing at a Alternative für Deutschland event in January and saying there is “frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,” seemingly referencing how the modern German population has grappled with the atrocities and lasting impact of the Nazi era.
Further Reading
Elon Musk Condemned After Calling Antisemitic Post ‘Actual Truth’ (Forbes)
Anti-Defamation League Condemns Elon Musk Holocaust Jokes After Defending ‘Awkward Gesture’ (Forbes)
Tesla Boycotts Turn Violent: Reports Of Vandalism And Worse (Timeline) (Forbes)
