Elon Musk fans flame with a Nazi joke soon after Netanyahu defends his hand gesture

Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a provocative joke about Holocaust an hour after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended him after the billionaire was accused of delivering a Nazi salute. Musk sparked a major political debate after he performed what appeared to be a Nazi salute at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration parade.

“Elon Musk is being falsely smeared,” Netanyahu wrote on Musk’s own social media account, X, on Thursday morning. While the Israeli premier avoided addressing Musk’s gesture directly he went on to call the billionaire a “great friend of Israel”.

The Israeli Prime Minister recalled how Musk paid a visit to Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Following the attack, Musk said that “Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.”

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Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!

Some people will Goebbels anything down!

Stop Gőring your enemies!

His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!

Bet you did nazi that coming 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2025

Musk fans flame soon after Netanyahu’s support

While Musk thanked Netanyahu for his support, he eventually fanned the flames in a brand new post which he shared an hour later. “Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,” Musk posted Thursday, adding laughing-face emojis.

His remarks garnered condemnation from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a group which took backlash days earlier for declaring that Musk’s hand gesture was not a Nazi symbol. “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 on X. Addressing Musk, he added, “The Holocaust is not a joke.”

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Earlier in the week, Greenblatt was radio-silent on his social media account during the Musk Nazi salute saga. He’d also refrained from commenting on Musk during a panel on antisemitism earlier Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, also denounced Musk’s jokes in stronger terms. “Wordplay about Nazis isn’t funny. It isn’t clever. And it’s dangerous,” Deutch wrote on X. “However you feel about the accusations being made against you, this is absolutely the wrong response. Nazi-themed ‘jokes’ are offensive and harmful. Don’t belittle the seriousness of the Holocaust; you give cover to those who seek to do the same," he added.