Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Elon Musk Thursday morning and called him a "great friend of Israel," after critics accused the billionaire and presidential confidant of repeatedly making a Nazi salute while celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration with a speech earlier this week
Elon Musk, left, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in southern Israel.
Netanyahu posted to X, the social media platform Musk owns and has used to blast those equating the hand gesture he made to a Nazi salute, and said Musk is being "falsely smeared."
He said Musk visited Israel after it was attacked by the militant group Hamas over a year ago and has "since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state."
Musk responded and said "Thank you" before continuing to comment on the situation Thursday morning by posting a series of puns using the names of famous Nazi party members like Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring.
Musk has been active on X since making the hand gestures Monday afternoon, defending himself, accusing “radical leftists” of overblowing the situation and thanking those who’ve come to his defense, including the Anti-Defamation League, which posted, "It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute.”
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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capitol One ... [+]
Musk was on stage at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C., for a Trump inaugural event Monday when he told the crowd, “Thank you,” then touched the left side of his chest with his right hand and extended his arm upward, repeating the motion to the crowd behind him. “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” he said as he finished the gesture. The move immediately ignited furor online, with many taking to social media to condemn the action, describing it as reminiscent of a "Sieg Heil” salute, performed by extending a straightened right arm. The salute was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany and its use is illegal in both Germany and Austria. It can also be prosecuted as hate speech in some other European countries. Several European officials and Democratic members of Congress have accused Musk of knowingly performing a Nazi salute, while defenders have claimed his gesture was accidental, including confidant Andrea Stroppa, who said the move was “simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying, 'I want to give my heart to you.'"
Several pages on the social platform Reddit are protesting X after Musk's gesture and have either banned or limited the sharing of direct links to the website.
"Ein Hitlergruß ist ein Hitlergruß ist ein Hitlergruß," read the headline of a widely shared article in the German newspaper Die Zeit this week, which translates to, "A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute."
Musk is the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $427.5 billion as of Thursday morning, putting him ahead of the world's second richest person, Jeff Bezos, by a margin of about $180 million. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump and was then nominated to lead the newly founded Department of Government Efficiency, which has said it will cut $2 trillion in federal spending.