Elon Musk contradicts himself on Nazism

Elon Musk seems to have a complicated relationship with Nazism, to say the least. In a moment of enthusiasm during President Trump’s inauguration in January, Musk gave a characteristic fist pump to his chest, followed by raising his arm up and to the right, then turned round and repeated the gesture to the remainder of the audience.

Many onlookers noticed the resemblance to the traditional fascist salute used by the Nazi Party and its allies, but sources close to Musk quickly revealed that these people were mistaken – Elon had simply been making a gesture to show his heart going out to the audience, and any resemblance to salutes were purely coincidental. Twice.

The incident seems to have left a lasting impression on the businessman, who usually likes to portray himself as an extreme free speech champion who opposes any effort to criminalise or moderate harm from “hurty words”.

Just last week he posted that “falsely labelling people as ‘fascist’ or ‘Nazi’ should be treated as incitement to murder” – an extreme position which would require repealing the USA’s First Amendment, and which goes well beyond anything the regulators Musk regularly rails against have ever called for.

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But Musk’s confusion doesn’t seem to end there. The EU has issued a relatively modest fine of €120 million against X for non-compliance with its laws on transparency, provoking a furious reaction from the thin-skinned billionaire – who promptly banned the EU Commission’s ad account on X, before suggesting the EU should be abolished.

Still on his furious high, Musk went further, approvingly quote-tweeting a post in which the EU flag is peeled back to reveal a Nazi flag – complete with swastika – beneath, captioned “The Fourth Reich”. Musk’s supportive repost reads in full: “Pretty much”.

It is possible the relentlessly addled Musk forgot his post from a week before, or else failed to make the connection. But by his own logic, at least, Musk just incited violence against EU officials – by hyperbolically calling them Nazis, which he said should be prosecuted.

That should in theory leave Musk on the thorns of a dilemma. Does he admit that he was wrong when he made the ridiculous statement that opining something is fascist is a criminal threat to violence? Or does he say he was wrong to liken the EU’s authorities to Nazis? In practice, of course, he will merely ignore the stupid contradiction, as he always does. But it’s still another bad day for the cognitive abilities of a man who still wants the world to think of him as a superlative genius.