It’s enough to make any sane and marginally well-mannered person pause, scratch their head and say: ‘Hold up. Is this actually happening? Are these clowns really running things?’
Elon Musk’s gesture at inaugural event stirs controversy
Elon Musk’s gesture to Donald Trump supporters at post-inauguration rally stirs controversy.
When last we checked on billionaire and co-president of the United States Elon Musk, he was giving a couple one-arm salutes to a crowd of Donald Trump supporters, causing people with eyes to ask: “Was that a Nazi salute?”
Musk’s fans rushed to his defense, offering a wide array of excuses ranging from the baffling “he was just excited” to the even-more-baffling “it was an innocuous Roman salute, you silly libs!”
The Anti-Defamation League provided Musk a measure of cover by weighing in and calling it “an awkward gesture,” some actual Nazis were tickled pink by the whole thing and life in America had started to slog toward its inevitable demise, until…
Elon Musk decided it was a great time to share some puns about Nazis
Early Wednesday, Musk decided it would be a fun idea to hop on the social-media site he purchased and turned into a hotbed for … well … Nazis and other assorted bigots. Then he decided it would be fun and smart and big-boy to rattle off a few Nazi puns. So he posted this:
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!
Some people will Goebbels anything down!
Stop Gőring your enemies!
His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!
Bet you did nazi that coming 😂
Musk’s Nazi jokes rightly draw the ire of the Anti-Defamation League
There’s a reliable rule when it comes to joking around about historical figures responsible for the Holocaust: Don’t. (An additional rule is to never, ever, ever use a laughing emoji when referencing the likes of monsters like Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels or Heinrich Himmler.)
That post prompted ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt, hot off forgiving Musk’s “awkward gesture,” to turn around and scold him, posting on X:
“We’ve said it hundreds of times before and we will say it again: the Holocaust was a singularly evil event, and it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it.
@elonmusk, the Holocaust is not a joke.”
In a separate post he added: “Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah.”
One of the most powerful people in America is cracking Nazi jokes?
OK, let’s pause a moment and consider all that is happening here in the early days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump’s right-hand billionaire is publicly yukking it up over Nazi jokes and having to be reminded that we don’t goof around about the murder of 6 million Jews.
Trump and all manner of his cronies and supporters are viciously targeting an Episcopalian bishop because she had the temerity to ask the new president to show mercy on vulnerable human beings.
It’s enough to make any sane and marginally well-mannered person pause, scratch their head and say: “Hold up. Is this actually happening? Are these clowns really running things?”
Trump and Musk are already making America worse with their behavior
Tragically, the answer to each of those questions is yes.
If you support Musk and Trump and their bold efforts to mainstream Nazi jokes and lambasting bishops, I suggest you go into your place of work or some public space and mimic Musk’s “awkward gesture,” or rattle off a few Hitler-era puns. Start yelling your condemnations of a person of the cloth you disagree with, and label that person “Satan.” Let’s see how that all works out for you.
For everyone else, welcome to the America of hateful fools and sad boys.
It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
