By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-24 01:11:31 | Updated at 2025-01-24 05:20:29
4 hours ago
The Anti-Defamation League slammed Elon Musk after he posted a series of Nazi-related puns on X when defending his gesture at an inauguration rally for President Trump that many claimed was a Nazi salute.
The ADL, a New York-based organization fighting antisemitism, said Musk had gone too far when trying to mock those targeting him over the salute, which the organization said was an “awkward gesture” rather than a Sieg Heil.
Following the backlash online, Musk went on a rant Thursday morning posting several inappropriate puns referencing top Nazi officers and Holocaust architects, including Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler.
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!” Musk wrote on X. “Some people will Goebbels anything down!
“Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!” he added. “Bet you did nazi that coming.”
Musks’ comments were flagged by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who condemned the statements on the Tesla CEO’s X platform.
“We’ve said it hundreds of times before and we will say it again: the Holocaust was a singularly evil event, and it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it,” Greenblatt wrote.
“@elonmusk, the Holocaust is not a joke.”
The condemnation was immediately followed by the ADL’s main X account, which echoed the criticism against Musk.
“Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah,” the group wrote in a statement.
Musk last earned the ire of the ADL in November 2023 when he agreed with a who claimed that Jewish communities push “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
The ADL’s criticism of Musk comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the billionaire was being “falsely smeared” over a viral video of his repeated salute at President Trump’s inauguration rally.
The ADL had also defended Musk’s salute, saying too many people “are on edge” following Trump’s return to the White House on Monday.
“It seems that [Musk] made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the antisemitism watchdog wrote on X.
