Elon Musk is facing backlash after posting a meme Thursday on Twitter that compares Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to German dictator Adolph Hitler.
Tesla’s CEO posted the meme as reply to a tweet from CoinDesk. The cryptocurrency news website’s tweet contained a story about Trudeau using emergency orders to halt crypto funds being given to the Freedom Convoy trucker protesters who are blocking border crossings along Canada’s border with the U.S.
Social media users immediately responded to Musk’s tweet, with many claiming the world’s richest man had gone too far. Some even called Musk racist for sharing a photo of Hitler with the text “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau…I had a budget.”
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Musk has previously spoke out in support of the trucker protests. However, he also criticized people who mention Hitler and Nazis in political discourse as recently as January 30 on Twitter.
The tweet posted early on Thursday from Musk containing the meme in question can be seen below.
The reaction to Musk’s tweet was swift on social media, with users condemning the message.
“Elon Musk is posting Adolf Hitler memes. Havin [sic] a normal Nazi day, this man who runs a company that partners with NASA. This is unacceptable. This is anti-Jewish hate,” posted one Twitter user.
TheWarOnTesla, a Twitter account that frequently posts anti-Tesla stories, wrote: “What PR team would want to work for a part-time CEO of a major publicly-traded company where while said company is being sued for racism, the part-time CEO posts Hitler memes? Musk has no good judgment. Where’s the board? Where are his advisors? JFC he’s such an ass sometimes.”
Musk’s mother is Canadian, and he lived in the country during his teen years, even attending Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania to obtain a bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics.
Newsweek contacted Musk for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
