Elon Musk is now defending his Nazi-like salute by invoking the names of high-ranking politicians and officials from World War II.
The billionaire posted the puns in a post to his X account on Thursday in response to claims that he gave a Nazi salute during his remarks at Donald Trump's inaugural parade in Washington, DC on Monday.
He joked with the names of Adolf Hitler's deputy Führer Rudolf Hess; Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels; Reichstag President Hermann Göring; and Schutzstaffel (SS) commander Heinrich Himmler.
The tweet also lashed out at liberal politicians' use of preferred pronouns in the shift toward accommodating transgender or non-binary individuals.
'Don't say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people want to leave Goebbels everything! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would have been He/Himmler!' Musk wrote.
“I bet you did that Nazi arrival,” he added in the final pun.
Conservatives rushed to Musk's defense after a liberal backlash over the gesture in which he placed his hand over his heart and then reached out to wave to the crowd at Capital One Arena.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netganyahu weighed in on Thursday in an X-post that Musk is being 'falsely smeared'.
Elon Musk invoked the names of several leaders of Nazi Germany in his final defense of his salute at Donald Trump's inaugural parade
He used the names to post a series of puns in a message to X on Thursday, concluding: 'I bet you did that Nazi'
“Elon is a good friend of Israel,” Netanyahu added of the South African native. “He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
“Since then, he has repeatedly and strongly supported Israel's right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes seeking to destroy the one and only Jewish state,” the prime minister concluded.
Musk's father also defended the gesture during an interview with NewsNation host Chris Como.
When asked about the salute on Wednesday night, Errol Musk said: “It's absolute nonsense, it's absolute nonsense. Waste.'
“It's a universal greeting, or, as you said, you know, throwing his heart out, I guess, yeah, that's been universal for thousands of years. So that's nonsense. That's nonsense, he repeated.
Musk said liberals are showing their hypocrisy with their recent attacks against him – claiming they cannot support Hamas terrorists operating from Gaza, while also condemning him for allegedly using the Nazi salute.
“The radical left are really angry that they had to take time out of their busy day to praise Hamas to call me a Nazi,” Musk wrote on X.
Democrats and more progressive liberals have loudly criticized Israel for defending itself against Hamas terrorists operating from Palestinian territory in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also came to Musk's defense on Thursday. He claimed he is a “great friend of Israel” and said liberals are “falsely smearing” the billionaire.
War broke out between the two sides after Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which was the largest massacre of Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust.
Just this month, Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement that ultimately resulted in the release of Israeli hostages.
Trump and Republican politicians have been more vocal in their support for Israel – a US ally – and during the president's first term he moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
His first administration also negotiated the Abraham Accords to help strengthen security and relations between Israel and its mostly hostile neighbors.
