The White House denounced Elon Musk for propagating "Antisemitic and racist hate". Specifically, the rhetoric was in reaction to the Tesla and X Corp. CEO echoing a social media post blaming "Jewish communities" for their supposed "hatred against whites." White House spokesman Andrew Bates sternly declared that it was "unacceptable" to regurgitate the horrific falsehood that caused the deadliest Antisemitism attack in American history.
The White House on Friday criticized Elon Musk for his promotion of "Antisemitic and racist hate" following the Tesla CEO and X Corp. owner's agreement to a social media post accusing "Jewish communities" of pushing "hatred against whites." Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, said it was "unacceptable" to repeat a view connected to the deadliest act of Antisemitism in American history, referring to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, where 11 people were shot to death due to an individual's belief in the antisemitic "white genocide" conspiracy theory. "We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans," Bates stated. Bates also noted the occurrence of the recent deadly attacks in Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, which he called "the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust" and said, "We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities."
Responses from Tesla and X Corporation to the White House's statement were not immediately available. In a reply to a post claiming Jewish communities are "pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," Musk, who has the most popular account on X, wrote: "You have said the actual truth." The original post, having been seen over 1.1 million times since Musk's endorsement, came from an account with fewer than 5,000 followers. In other posts, Musk critiqued the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish nonprofit advocacy group, claiming they are pushing "de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind" and that they "unjustly attack the majority of the West" instead of criticizing "minority groups who are their primary threat." ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responded to Musk's post, warning that "At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one's influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories." Musk has previously threatened to sue the ADL for defamation, alleging the group has "been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic."
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In 2018, Musk was accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracies through a tweet he posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter, in which he asked "Who do you think *owns* the press? Hello." He later blamed a "glitch" for hiding another post in the thread and "removing context" from the statement. He also posted a meme, comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler, which he deleted after a backlash. After Musk acquired Twitter in 2020, he allowed a neo-Nazi website publisher, Andrew Anglin, to re-access the platform.
Despite reports of engagement on the platform having dropped since he acquired it, Musk claims that traffic is not down. However, he has admitted that U.S. ad revenue is significantly lower. Following the controversy over his latest accusations of antisemitism, some companies have distanced themselves from him and his platform, with IBM announcing it will pause advertising on X. Musk is also the founder of SpaceX, and on Saturday they are set to launch Starship as part of a NASA contract.
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