Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a tweet shared this week. Reportedly, Musk deleted the tweet 12 hours later.
A screenshot of Musk’s tweet shows him responding to an article by CoinDesk that claims that Canada sanctioned over 30 crypto wallets with ties to the “Freedom Convoy.” As Townhall has reported, the “Freedom Convoy” is a group of truckers that traveled across Canada to the nation's capital, Ottawa, to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The truckers are now parked in the city streets in Ottawa.
As Matt noted this week, Trudeau invoked Canada’s “Emergencies Act” on Monday to dispel the trucker convoy. One of the provisions is that the government can seize the bank accounts of residents who helped the truckers without a warrant.
In Musk’s tweet, he responded to CoinDesk’s report with an image of Adolf Hitler with the statement “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau I had a budget[.]” The tweet garnered thousands of retweets and likes before it was taken down.
UPDATE: Almost 12 hours later, Elon Musk has deleted this tweet: https://t.co/EBLRFVzHgv pic.twitter.com/kBGUmtUE8i
— David Gura (@davidgura) February 17, 2022
Several Twitter users responded to Musk’s tweet, including the Auschwitz Memorial.
Using the image of Adolf Hitler & therefore exploiting the tragedy of all people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany created by him is sad & disturbing. It disrespects the memory of all victims & hurts many people.
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) February 17, 2022
Elon Musk deleted a tweet comparing Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler over Trudeau’s opposition to the trucker protest in Canada. I wish I could find the words to capture how disgusting this is. pic.twitter.com/YLRc5wYsgR
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) February 17, 2022
Was going to write something about Elon Musk’s terrible Hitler comparison but the @AuschwitzMuseum couldn’t have put it better. pic.twitter.com/OS9xyTXWau
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) February 17, 2022
Elon Musk is posting Adolf Hitler memes. Havin a normal Nazi day, this man who runs a company that partners with NASA. This is unacceptable. This is anti-Jewish hate. pic.twitter.com/zv7rXfAuLP
— Xeni (@xeni) February 17, 2022
Musk has shared his support for the truckers in recent weeks. On Jan. 30, he tweeted an image of a trucker convoy with the caption, “Taking a break from politics for a while. Here’s a nice photo of trucks.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2022
Days earlier, he tweeted “Canadian truckers rule.”
Canadian truckers rule
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022
Musk followed up with “CB radios are free from [government]/media control.”
CB radios are free from govt/media control
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022
While Musk himself is vaccinated against COVID-19, he has been outspoken against vaccine mandates. When he was announced as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, he told the outlet that vaccine mandates are an “erosion of freedom.”
"You [the unvaccinated] are taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time,” he told Time Magazine. “I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.”