‘The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is promoting the far right in Europe. Don’t buy a Tesla.’
Campaign group Led by Donkeys has projected the clip of Elon Musk making two ‘Nazi salutes’ at Trump’s inauguration onto the side of his Tesla factory in Berlin.
The video featured Musk making the gesture alongside the words “Heil Tesla”, a reference to the Nazi greeting used to pay homage to fascist leader Adolf Hitler.
Responding to comments that the gesture resembled a Nazi salute, Musk said: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Led By Donkeys and Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty also shared a mini documentary on Instagram yesterday. The caption read: “The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is promoting the far right in Europe. Don’t buy @teslamotors. Location: Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin.”
“This is the Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin where Elon Musk builds Tesla cars for the European market. It’s factories like this that have made him the world’s richest person.
“But now he’s using that wealth, billions of dollars amassed by selling Teslas, to promote European far-right parties,” the voiceover from the mini-documentary says.
The voiceover goes on to say that Musk is supporting far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming German election. AfD members have been accused of using Nazi slogans and trivialising the Holocaust.
The video also shows tweets Musk has posted in support of far-right figure and football hooligan Tommy Robinson. It also notes that the tech billionaire recently came to the defence of Andrew McIntyre who was a “key architect” of the riots after the Southport attacks last summer.
During Musk’s speech at Trump’s inauguration on Monday, the owner of X and Tesla thanked Trump supporters for getting him elected.
“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk said during his speech at Capital One Arena, referring to Trump winning the US presidential election.
Musk then turned and saluted again, his arm and hand slightly lower. He told the audience: “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured. Thanks to you. We’re gonna have safe cities, finally safe cities. Secure borders, sensible spending. Basic stuff. And we’re gonna take ‘Doge’ to Mars.”
A spokesperson for Led By Donkeys told the PA news agency: “Musk is using his wealth from Tesla to back far-right parties and degrade democracy.
“He shouldn’t be surprised if people don’t fancy driving round in his cars for much longer.
“Increasingly it’s not a great look.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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