Shortly after sharing a series of jokes about Nazis on his X account on Thursday, Elon Musk persistently mocked his critics with additional posts.
This week, the tech entrepreneur faced intense backlash after making a controversial hand gesture during his speech at President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally on Monday—an action many claimed closely mirrored the fascist salute associated with Nazi Germany.
“If I see one more damn Nazi salute in my feed, I’m gonna lose my mind,” Musk commented on X, accompanied by a silly-face emoji. “This algorithm sucks!!”
He also responded to a clip of French President Emmanuel Macron gesturing to the crowd, remarking “Seriously” in response to news aggregator Visegrád 24’s question about whether anyone had also labeled him a Nazi.
Moments later, he uploaded a GIF of Arnold Schwarzenegger raising his right arm and noted, “He’s Austrian too,” with a side-eye emoji, seemingly attempting to draw a parallel between how his own gesture and Schwarzenegger’s was interpreted.
Earlier on Thursday, Musk tweeted: “Don’t say Hess to Nazi allegations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your foes! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you didn’t Nazi that coming,” paired with a cry-laughing face emoji.
The mentions of infamous Nazi figures resonated deeply with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization established to fight against antisemitism.
“Making inappropriate and exceedingly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only minimizes the malevolence and atrocities committed by the Nazis, belittles the suffering of victims and survivors, and disrespects the memory of the six million Jews who were slaughtered during the Shoah,” the ADL shared on their X account Thursday, adjusting their stance on Musk after initially facing criticism for supporting him earlier in the week.
On Monday, the group indicated that Musk’s hand gesture was “not a Nazi salute” but merely an “awkward” expression of excitement.
“It appears that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, though we recognize that tensions are high,” the ADL stated. “At this time, all parties should extend some grace to one another, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a moment to breathe. This should be a fresh start. Let’s aspire for healing and strive for unity in the months to come.”
