This time, it is because of involvement in a Nazi salute controversy linked to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The billionaire recently retweeted a post comparing a screengrab of Taylor Swift waving to a Nazi salute, which ignited anger amongst Swift’s fans, known as Swifties. This controversial post, shared by a conservative Twitter (now X) account, paired a photo of Swift with a Nazi salute by Adolf Hitler, captioned with the caption, “Does this mean Swifties = Hitler youth?” Musk’s retweet lit the fire and sent out a widespread wave of criticism against Swifties.
The post was quickly proved to be false as an Instagram account published videos demonstrating that Swift was only waving at her fans and not saluting. Fans, even some non-fans, rushed to her side to condemn Musk’s smear. A commentator said, “His obsessive fixation about her is disturbing,” while another commented, “If I were her, I’d be suing for this totally unprovoked smear attempt.”
It’s not the first time Musk has locked horns with Swift. Last year, when Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president, Musk said something very baffling in which he seemed to want to impregnate her.
However, there is another controversy surrounding Musk-the Nazi salute row. This was during his speech at the inauguration of Donald Trump. As he was speaking, Musk slapped his hand on his chest, raised his arm and gave a gesture similar to the Nazi salute with the palm facing downwards. He has neither denied nor acknowledged the claims of online backlash and has rather ridiculed the whole incident and those making the comparison.