Elon Musk Definitely Doesn’t Seem Concerned That Far-Right Extremists Are Cheering Him On

No longer content with merely meddling in American politics, tech billionaire and Trump advisor Elon Musk appeared at a rally for Germany’s far-right AfD party in Halle over the weekend. Musk, who spoke at the event virtually, told an approving crowd that Germany should “move beyond” its “past guilt,” an apparent reference to Nazism and the Holocaust. “Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” he said.

Musk’s remarks came on the back of both a controversial Nazi-like salute he made at President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week and a string of tasteless, edgelord Nazi-related jokes he’s since made to deflect blame. During the inauguration event, Musk twice raised his hand in a straight-armed gesture that neo-Nazis and other observers widely interpreted as reminiscent of a “sieg heil” salute.

Since then, he could have disavowed the extremists who cheered the gesture or condemned their broader ideology. Instead, Musk has mocked his critics, shared digitally faked images of Taylor Swift making the same salute, and now—perhaps most tellingly—voiced support for a far-right German party that has regularly downplayed the Holocaust. “It helps place the hand gesture in perspective!” Abraham Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote Saturday on X. Notably, gestures like the one Musk made last week are actually illegal in Germany, where people have broadly interpreted the inauguration salute as a neo-Nazi gesture, per the New York Times’ former Berlin bureau chief.

AfD is just one of the hard-right causes that Musk has backed in Europe. In early January, Musk hosted its leader, Alice Weidel, for a friendly, hourlong livestream on X. He has also voiced support for the United Kingdom’s Reform UK party and Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, while lambasting moderate European leaders like British PM Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Ironically, Trump praised Starmer aboard Air Force One on Saturday night, revealing another apparent rift between Musk and the new president.

Still, some European politicians and watchdogs warn against Musk’s growing political influence. Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron called it unimaginable that “the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections.” The European Commission also recently stepped up an investigation into X, demanding the company turn over information about its algorithmic recommendation systems. The platform could face steep penalties if investigators find that it has artificially boosted far-right content or politicians.